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COLONIAL  CIVIL  SERVICE 

.,..,.         -„,         ,      I      II    r.  rr.Tr" -    ~ i  ■  .■..  — ~— i— ^1 


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COLONIAL  CIVIL  SERVICE 


•y^>^' 


COLONIAL  CIVIL  SERVICE 


THE  SELECTION   AND  TRAINING  OF 
COLONIAL  OFFICIALS  IN  ENG- 
LAND,   HOLLAND,   AND 
FRANCE 

BY 

A.   LAWRENCE   LOWELL 

WITH 

\ 

AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  EAST  INDIA  COLLEGE 
AT  HAILEYBURY  (1806-185  7) 

BY 

H.   MORSE  STEPHENS 


THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Ltd. 
1900 

All  rights  f^ttrvtd 


Copyright,  1900, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


J.  S.  Cushing  fe  Co.  -  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


PREFACE 

All  thinking  men  are  united  in  the  opinion  that 
the  United  States  ought  to  establish  in  the  Philip- 
pines a  civil  service  which  shall  be  thoroughly  effi- 
cient and  free  from  political  pressure  of  every  kind, 
and  hence  it  appears  worth  while  to  see  what  light 
can  be  derived  from  the  experience  of  other  nations. 
A  radical  change  in  the  British  system  has  been 
made  since  the  excellent  work  of  the  late  Dorman  B. 
Eaton  on  the  English  civil  service  was  published ; 
and  there  is  no  book  in  our  own  language,  and  none 
containing  the  latest  information  in  any  other,  upon 
the  methods  of  recruiting  officials  for  the  colonies 
of  Holland  and  France.  For  this  reason  the  fol- 
lowing pages  on  the  Selection  and  Training  of  Colo- 
nial Officials  in  those  three  countries  were  originally 
prepared  at  the  request  of  the  American  Historical 
Association,  and  a  summary  of  the  results  was  pre- 
sented at  the  meeting  of  the  Association  at  Boston 
on  December  27,  last. 

In  writing  a  report  of  this  kind  it  is  important  to 
include,  as  far  as  possible,  everything  that  a  student 
of  the  subject  might  desire  to  find,  and  hence  the 
following  chapters  must  comprise  a  great  deal  of 
detail   that  is  unnecessary  for  the  general   reader. 


vi  PREFACE 

In  order,  therefore,  to  save  the  latter  from  wasting 
his  time  on  what  does  not  interest  him,  the  chapters 
have  been  subdivided  into  short  sections  with  sepa- 
rate titles.  This,  it  is  hoped,  will  enable  any  one 
to  find  rapidly  any  special  points  in  which  he  may 
be  interested. 

The  writer  is  very  grateful  for  the  assistance  given 
him,  in  the  preparation  of  this  work,  by  gentlemen 
in  the  colonial  offices,  by  colonial  officials  on  leave 
of  absence,  and  by  instructors  of  candidates  for  the 
service,  in  each  of  the  three  countries  which  he 
visited,  and  he  would  like  to  insert  their  names 
here ;  but  the  list  is  so  long  that  it  seems  better  to 
omit  names  altogether,  and  merely  express  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  great  courtesy  and  kindness  with  which 
he  was  treated. 

Among  the  persons  who  took  part  in  the  discus- 
sion of  this  paper  at  the  meeting  of  the  Ameri- 
can Historical  Association  was  Professor  H.  Morse 
Stephens  of  Cornell  University,  who  spoke  of  the 
work  of  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury,  where 
a  number  of  his  forbears  had  been  trained  for  the 
Indian  Civil  Service.  He  received  his  own  early 
education  there  after  the  college  had  been  given  up 
and  the  institution  changed  into  a  school  for  boys, 
on  the  model  of  Marlborough  and  other  modem 
English  public  schools.  Professor  Stephens  has  had, 
in  fact,  a  singular  chance  for  comparing  the  old 
system  with  the  new,  for  he  was  an  undergraduate 
at  Balliol  College,  Oxford,  from  1877  to  1880,  when 


PREFACE  vii 

the  efforts  of  Jowett  attracted  thither  a  majority  of 
the  selected  candidates  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service 
while  the  age  of  admission  was  under  nineteen ;  and 
he  afterward  taught  the  history  of  India  for  two 
years,  1892- 1894,  at  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
to  the  selected  candidates  for  the  Indian  Civil  Ser- 
vice after  the  age  of  admission  had  been  raised. 
He  has  kindly  contributed  the  account  of  the  old 
college  at  H  alley  bury  published  in  this  volume. 

The  history  of  H  alley  bury  is,  indeed,  too  little 
known.  The  account  in  the  "  Memorials  of  Old 
Haileybury  College"  published  in  1894,  the  only 
work  on  the  subject,  has  mainly  the  character  of  a 
collection  of  personal  reminiscences,  and  is  inade- 
quate for  this  purpose.  A  description,  therefore,  of 
the  real  work  of  the  institution,  based  upon  the  views 
of  men  trained  at  Haileybury,  such  as  John  Law- 
rence, Bartle  Frere,  and  George  Campbell,  which 
Professor  Stephens  has  collected,  is  very  much 
needed ;  and  it  seemed  especially  appropriate  as  a 
sequel  to  the  examination  of  existing  methods  of 
recruiting  colonial  officials,  because  the  writer  has 
been  irresistibly  led  by  his  study  of  those  methods 
to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  practicable  plan  for 
the  United  States  to  adopt  is  that  of  a  college  not 
altogether  unlike  Haileybury. 

A.  LAWRENCE  LOWELL. 
Boston,  January  29,  190a 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

INTRODUCTION 
Necessity  for  a  Special  Service 


CHAPTER   I.     ENGLAND 

History  of  the  Recruiting  of  the   Indian  Civil 
Service 
Early  regulation  by  statute  . 
The  college  at  Fort  William 
The  college  at  Haileybury   . 
Merits  and  faults  of  Haileybury 
Introduction  of  competitive  examinations     . 
The  report  of  Macaulay's  Commission 
Gradual  reduction  of  the  age  of  the  candidates 
Inquiry  into  the  system  in  1876   . 
Reduction  of  the  age  to  nineteen 

Effect  of  the  change 

The  age  again  raised  to  twenty-three  . 

Present  Regulation  of  the  Examination 

Method  of  conducting  the  examination 

Nature  of  the  examination  . 

The  method  of  marking 

The  nature  of  the  subjects   . 

Severity  of  the  examination 

Previous  preparation  of  the  candidates 

Cramming 

Quality  of  the  candidates     . 
Their  physical  condition 


9 
II 

13 
15 
15 

20 
21 
24 
26 
27 

28 
31 
32 
34 
36 
37 
38 
39 
41 
41 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


Natives  of  India  at  the  competition 
Subsequent  training  of  the  candidates 
Summary  of  the  history 
Results  of  the  system  . 


Offices  included  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service 
History  of  the  Covenanted  Civil  Service 
Efforts  to  employ  more  natives  in  the  Service 
Number  of  Europeans  in  the  several  services 

Method  of  recruiting  Native  Officials 


Special  Services  in  India     . 
The  college  at  Cooper's  Hill 


Other  British  Colonies  in  the  East 
Examination  for  the  Eastern  Cadets    . 
Subsequent  training  of/ the  Eastern  Cadets 
Positions  reserved  for  Eastern  Cadets  . 

British  Colonies  Elsewhere 


42 
43 
47 
48 

50 
SI 
54 
56 

58 

61 
62 

65 
66 
70 
72 

74 


APPENDIX   A 
Report  of  Macaulay's  Commission 


77 


APPENDIX   B 

Examinations  for  the  Civil  Service  of  India  .        .  99 

Regulations 99 

Syllabus  of  the  requirements  in  certain  subjects   .        .  108 


CHAPTER   II.     HOLLAND 

History  of  the  Subject 113 

The  Royal  Academy  at  Delft 114 

The  Ordinance  of  1864  and  the  Grand  Examination 

for  Officials 116 

The  state  school  at  Leyden 117 

The  municipal  school  at  Delft 118 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


XI 


The  municipal  school  at  Leyden  . 
Changes  in  the  Ordinance  of  1864 
The  Law  of  1876,  and  the  Examination  by  the 

ulties 

The  Ordinances  of  1883  and  1893 

Summary  of  Existing  Rules 

The  Judicial  Service    .... 
The  Administrative  Service 

The  Grand  Examination  for  Officials 

The  examining  commission 
Qualifications  for  the  examination 
Absence  of  a  limit  of  age 
The  programme  of  the  examination 

The  first  part  .... 

The  second  part 
The  proportion  of  failures    . 


Fac- 


POSITIONS   reserved  FOR   MEMBERS   OF   THE   SERVICE 

The  Indische  Instelling  te  Delft 
The  course  of  study  at  the  school 

The  Grand  Examination  at  Batavia, — Natives  and 
Half-castes 


Criticisms  made  upon  the  Present  System 
The  recent  special  commission  and  its  report 
The  plan  proposed  by  the  commission 
Comments  made  upon  the  report 


The  Physical  Examination  . 
The  Native  Officials   . 
Special  Services    . 
The  Other  Dutch  Colonies 


PAGE 
119 
120 

120 

121 

123 
123 
126 

127 
127 
128 
130 
132 
132 

13s 

137 

138 
140 


142 
144 

149 

15s 
157 


xii  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

APPENDIX 

FAGS 

Rules  relating  to  the  Grand  Examination  for 
Officials.  (Annexed  to  the  Ordinance  of  July 
20,  1893,  with  the  subsequent  modifications.)        .     158 

Regulation  and  Programme  for  the  Same      .        .164 

Regulation 164 

Programme 169 

First  part  ........     169 

Second  part 170 

CHAPTER   III.     FRANCE 
Cochin-China,  1861-1881 172 

The  Colonial  School 175 

Foundation  of  the  school 175 

The  government  of  the  school 178 

The  qualifications  for  admission  to  the  school  .  .180 
The  competitive  examination  for  admission  .         .181 

Preparation  for  the  examination  .  .  .  .  -183 
The  sections  or  courses  at  the  school  .  .  .  .185 
The  studies  in  the  different  sections  .  .  .  .187 
Rank  at  the  school  and  appointment  to  the  service  .  190 
Cramming  and  method  of  marking       ....     192 

Estimate  of  the  school 192 

Criticisms  by  M.  Boutmy 194 

Reduction  in  the  Positions  reserved  for  Graduates 

OF  the  School 197 

The  African  Service 197 

The  Service  of  Indo-China 200 

Change  in  the  object  of  the  school       ....  202 


Other  Methods  of  entering  the  Service 

Open  competition 

Appointments  from  the  Army  and  Navy 
Promotions  from  the  subordinate  service 


202 
203 
205 
206 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS  xiii 

PAGE 

The  Judicial  Service 208 

French  Experience  of  Little  Value         .        .       .    208 


APPENDIX 

Courses  of  Study  in  the  Administrative  Sections 

OF  THE  Colonial  School         .       .        .        .210 


CHAPTER  IV.     THE   UNITED    STATES 
The  Principles  to  be  applied 214 

The  English  System  cannot  be  adopted  here  .  216 
Because  contrary  to  our  habits  of  thought  .  .  .216 
Because  a  standard  cannot  be  maintained    .         .        .     220 

Possibility  of  a  Special  College       .        .        .        .221 

Advantages  of  such  a  college 223 

Regulations  of  such  a  college       .....     226 
Size  of  the  college 227 

Concluding  Remarks 229 


THE    EAST    INDIA    COLLEGE   AT 
HAILEYBURY 


Introduction 233 

Good  Men  obtained  under  the  Different  Systems        .        .  236 

History  of  the  Patronage  System 238 

Appointments  under  the  Patronage  System  .  .  .  246 
Scandals  under  the  Patronage  System  .  .  .  -251 
Lack  of  Suitable  Training  for  Indian  Officials  prior  to  the 

Foundation  of  the  College  of  Fort  William  .         .         .  256 


xiv  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 

PAGB 

The  College  of  Fort  William '  262 

The  Foundation  of  Haileybury 267 

History  of  Haileybury 271 

Qualifications  for  Entrance  into  Haileybury        .         .        .  284 

The  Course  of  Studies  at  Haileybury 289 

Discipline  at  Haileybury 296 

Haileybury  Students  who  did  not  enter  the  Civil  Service  in 

India 303 

The  Intellectual  Side  of  Life  at  Haileybury         .         .         .  306 

Social  Side  of  Life  at  Haileybury 308 

The  Number  of  Students  at  Haileybury  ,  .  .  .312 
Reminiscences  and  Opinions  of  Haileybury,  by  Men  who 

were  trained  there 313 

The  Court  of  Directors  and  the  College      .         .         .         -314 

Direct  Appointments  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  1827-1831  319 

Addiscombe       .        . 323 

The  Abolition  of  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury        .  328 

The  New  Haileybury  ....                ...  331 

The  Effect  of  Haileybury  on  the  Indian  Civil  Service          .  333 

Haileyburians  versus  Competition  Wallahs         .        .        .  338 

Conclusion 345 


The 

Selection  and  Training  of  Colonial 

Officials  in  England,  Holland, 

and  France 


INTRODUCTION 

NECESSITY   FOR   A   SPECIAL   SERVICE 

The  requirements  for  a  civil  service  in  tropical  or 
Asiatic  colonies  are  quite  different  from  those  for  the 
home  civil  service.  At  home,  except  for  special 
branches  of  administration  requiring  a  high  degree  of 
technical  knowledge,  such  as  the  Army  or  the  Navy, 
an  intelligent  man  can  easily  learn  in  a  comparatively 
short  time  to  do  the  government  work  fairly  well. 
In  the  Post  Office,  for  example,  every  one  knows  in 
a  general  way,  or  can  readily  understand,  what  is 
wanted,  and  the  work  can  be  done  after  a  fashion 
by  new  men  of  good  capacity.  In  most  branches 
of  the  home  administration,  therefore,  a  constant 
change  of  employees  produces  inferior  service,  but 
does  not  stop  the  wheels  of  government  altogether, 
and  does  not  involve  a  danger  of  national  ruin. 

In  an  Asiatic  colony,  on  the  other  hand,  where  the 
duty  of  the  official  consists,  for  the  most  part,  in 
ruling  over  districts  containing  many  thousands  of 
natives,  an  untrained  man,  suddenly  appointed,  would 
be  perfectly  helpless  however  great  his  natural  capac- 
ity. He  knows  neither  the  language  nor  the  cus- 
toms of  the  people,  nor  does  he  comprehend  their 

3 


4  INTRODUCTION 

thoughts ;  and  the  consequences  of  his  ignorance 
may  be  disastrous.  Well  meaning  but  inexperi- 
enced officials  could  easily  provoke  an  insurrection 
like  the  Indian  Mutiny  without  being  in  the  least 
conscious  that  they  were  drifting  into  danger. 
Hence  the  administration  of  the  colony  can  be  en- 
trusted only  to  men  who  have  mastered  the  language 
and  all  the  conditions  under  which  the  government 
must  be  carried  on.  But  Oriental  and  Western 
civilizations  are  so  different  that  years  must  pass 
before  an  official  becomes  thoroughly  efficient ;  and 
no  man  of  parts  will  undertake  those  years  of  prep- 
aration if  he  is  liable  to  be  thrown  back  on  the 
world  to  start  life  all  over  again  after  he  has  proved 
himself  a  valuable  public  servant.  The  colonial  civil 
service  must  therefore  be  a  lifelong  career. 

The  career  must  be  begun  young,  and  that  for  two 
reasons.  First,  because  it  is  only  in  youth  that  new 
languages,  and  a  comprehension  of  strange  civiliza- 
tions, can  be  acquired  rapidly  and  well ;  and  second, 
because  if  the  selection  of  colonial  officials  is  made 
after  men  have  begun  to  be  established  in  life,  those 
who  have  already  shown  an  ability  to  succeed  will 
not  abandon  an  assured  career  for  another  in  which, 
though  the  reward  is  great,  success  is  problematical. 
The  men  who  apply  will  be  those  whose  previous 
ventures  in  life  have  not  been  the  most  fortunate  ; 
and  the  colonial  service  cannot  afford  to  accept  the 
failures  in  other  vocations.  Hence  colonial  officials 
must  be  recruited  at  the  time  when  young  men  are 


NECESSITY  FOR  A  SPECIAL  SERVICE  5 

choosing  their  occupations  in  life,  and  as  the  service 
means  leaving  home  for  a  tropical  climate,  and  what 
are  to  most  persons  uncongenial  surroundings,  men 
of  strong  qualities,  moral,  intellectual,  and  physical, 
must  be  tempted  into  it  by  large  pay,  security  of 
tenure,  and  liberal  pensions. 

On  these  principles  all  the  progressive  nations  of 
the  world  are  agreed,  and  the  completeness  with 
which  they  act  upon  them  in  practice  is  proportion- 
ate to  the  length  of  their  experience.  France  has 
tried  recruiting  her  colonial  officials  from  her  home 
civil  service,  but  she  has  given  it  up  ;  and  in  fact 
Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  great  French  writer  on  colonies, 
ascribed  a  capital  importance  to  the  mistakes  of  his 
country  in  this  matter.^ 

In  passing  it  must  be  remarked  that  it  is  unneces- 
sary, and  frequently  it  is  inexpedient  after  the  organ- 
ization has  been  completed,  to  select  the  executive 
head  of  the  colony  from  the  permanent  civil  service. 
In  the  great  English  dependencies  in  the  East  the 
Governor  is,  as  a  rule,  an  eminent  English  statesman 
appointed  for  five  years  only.  His  duty  is  to  bring 
to  bear  on  colonial  problems  large  political  views, 
and  a  world-wide  experience  of  life ;  while  his  rela- 
tion to  the  colonial  officials  is  like  that  of  an  English 
Minister  to  the  permanent  staff  of  his  department. 
He  relies  upon  them  for  technical  information  and  a 
knowledge  of  the  native  life,  and  he  acts  as  a  link 

^  "  De  la  Colonisation  chez  les  Peuples  Modemes,"  4  Ed.,  pp. 
450-45 »»  832- 


6  INTRODUCTION 

between  them  and  the  Government  at  home.  All 
this  is  true  of  the  Dutch  colonies  also. 

Assuming  that  a  colonial  service  must  be  a  career, 
to  begin  in  youth,  and  is  to  continue  for  life,  the 
question  naturally  presents  itself  how  the  selection  of 
young  men  is  to  be  made.  There  are  two  methods 
of  doing  this :  on  the  one  hand,  an  arbitrary  choice 
by  the  authorities,  limited,  more  or  less,  by  the  re- 
quirement of  certain  qualifications, —  a  method  which 
has  certainly  its  advantages,  but  entails  unavoidably, 
to  some  extent  at  least,  the  evils  of  patronage  and 
favoritism  ;  and  on  the  other  hand,  a  free  competition 
of  some  kind  among  voluntary  candidates.  Either 
one  or  the  other  of  these  systems,  or  some  com- 
bination of  the  two,  must  be  adopted.  During  the 
last  half  century  the  progressive  nations  of  Europe 
have  been  coming  to  use  the  competitive  system 
to  a  greater  and  greater  extent,  although  the  forms 
in  which  it  has  been  introduced  differ  very  mate- 
rially from  one  another. 

A  second  question  that  presents  itself  is  how  the 
young  men  who  have  been  selected  shall  be  prepared 
for  their  work ;  how  far  their  training  shall  take  the 
form  of  academic  studies,  and  how  far  of  an  appren- 
ticeship in  the  colony  itself. 

The  object  of  the  following  pages  is  to  show  the 
way  these  problems  have  been  worked  out  by  the 
three  progressive  nations  of  Western  Europe  that 
have  been  called  upon  to  face  them  for  a  consider- 
able length  of  time. 


CHAPTER   I 

ENGLAND 

HISTORY   OF   THE   RECRUITING   OF   THE    INDIAN 
CIVIL    SERVICE 

The  East  India  Company 

While  the  East  India  Company  was  still  in  the 
main  a  body  of  merchant  adventurers,  its  servants 
were  appointed  like  those  of  other  trading  compa- 
nies. The  same  practice  was  followed  after  it 
became  the  arbiter  over  vast  territories,  and  its  politi- 
cal importance  overshadowed  its  commerce,  and  even 
after  it  began,  in  1772,  to  assume  the  direct  collec- 
tion of  the  revenue  and  the  administration  of  civil 
justice  in  Bengal,  Behar,  and  Orissa.  Its  agents, 
although  really  public  officials  ruling  over  great  mul- 
titudes of  subjects,  were  still  known  by  the  commer- 
cial titles  of  Writers,  Factors,  and  Junior  and  Senior 
Merchants,  and  they  were  still  selected  by  the  gov- 
erning body  of  the  Company. 

A  candidate  for  a  writership  was  first  nominated 
by  one  of  the  Directors ;  the  Chairman,  Dep- 
uty Chairman,  and  Members  of  the  Committee  of 
Correspondence   having  the  privilege  of  nominating 

7 


8  ENGLAND 

a  larger  number  than  the  other  Directors.  After 
securing  his  nomination,  the  candidate  addressed  to 
the  court  of  Directors  a  petition,  which  was  referred 
to  the  Committee  on  Accounts.  This  body  examined 
the  qualifications  of  the  various  petitioners,  and  when 
its  report  had  been  presented  the  candidates  were 
voted  upon  by  ballot. 

Early  Regulation  by  Statute 

The  first  regulation  by  the  English  Government  of 
the  appointment  of  Indian  officials  was  made  by 
Pitt's  India  Act  of  1784  (24  Geo.  III.,  c.  25,  sees.  42, 
43»  63),  which  provided  that,  with  certain  exceptions, 
writers  and  cadets  were  to  be  between  the  ages  of 
fifteen  and  eighteen  when  sent  out,  and  that  ser- 
vants of  the  Company  who  had  been  five  years  in 
England  were  not  to  be  capable  of  appointment  to 
an  Indian  post  unless  they  could  show  that  their 
residence  in  England  was  due  to  ill  health.  It 
provided  also  that,  except  for  the  members  of  the 
Governor's  Council,  promotion  was  to  be  made  as  a 
rule  by  seniority,  —  a  practice  which  had,  indeed, 
been  usual  with  the  Company,  the  officials  rising 
from  one  grade  to  another  after  a  certain  number  of 
years  of  service.  Charges  of  jobbing  in  Indian  ap- 
pointments on  the  part  of  the  authorities  of  the 
Company  were,  however,  still  heard,  and  to  prevent 
them  the  act  of  1793  (33  Geo.  III.,  c.  52,  sec.  56, 
57)  further  provided  that  all  vacancies  under  the 
rank  of  Members  of   Council  should  be  filled   only 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA  9 

from  among  the  civil  servants  of  the  Company  by 
seniority,  —  a  provision  which,  though  never  strictly 
enforced,  remained  on  the  statute  book  until  1861. 
The  Company  was,  however,  left  perfectly  free  in 
the  original  selection  of  its  civil  servants,  save  for 
the  provisions  :  that  writers  on  their  first  appoint- 
ment must  not  be  less  than  fifteen  nor  more  than 
twenty-two  years  of  age ;  and  that  the  Directors 
must  take  an  oath  that  they  would  not  accept  or 
take  any  fee,  present,  or  reward  for  the  nomination 
of  any  person  to  any  place  in  the  gift  of  the 
Company. 

The  College  at  Fort  William. 

In  the  days  of  its  commercial  greatness  a  servant 
of  the  Company  acquired  a  considerable  education  in 
Eastern  affairs  as  an  underling  before  he  became 
entrusted  with  public  duties,  but  after  the  trade  of  the 
Company  became  less  important,  many  of  its  servants 
never  had  any  connection  with  commerce.  As  a 
Governor  General  stated  publicly  at  the  beginning 
of  the  present  century,  "  Not  only  is  mercantile 
knowledge  unnecessary,  but  Indian  civil  servants 
invested  with  the  powers  of  magistracy  are  bound  by 
an  oath  to  abstain  from  every  commercial  pursuit." 
Under  these  circumstances  it  became  evident  that 
some  training  must  be  provided  for  the  Company's 
civil  servants  to  fit  them  for  their  public  duties. 
Moreover,  the  men  appointed,  although  of  a  higher 
type  than  formerly,  were  distinctly  lacking  in  general 


lO  ENGLAND 

education.  The  question  was  taken  up  by  Lord 
Wellesley,  the  Governor  General  of  India,  and  he 
founded  the  College  at  Fort  William,  Calcutta,  writ- 
ing on  August  1 8,  1800,  a  Minute  in  Council,  giving 
at  length  his  reasons  for  doing  so.  The  plan  he 
proposed  was  that  of  a  college  where  all  the  writers 
intended  for  any  one  of  the  three  Presidencies  should, 
before  being  assigned  to  active  duties,  pursue  a 
course  including  both  liberal  and  Oriental  studies. 
The  plan  was  thought  by  the  authorities  of  the  Com- 
pany in  England  to  involve  too  much  expense  and 
to  cover  too  wide  a  field.  It  was  therefore  modified 
by  being  limited  to  the  writers  intended  for  the 
Presidency  of  Bengal,  and  by  a  considerable  reduc- 
tion in  the  scope  of  the  education  provided,  which 
was  confined  to  the  study  of  law  and  Oriental  lan- 
guages. 

In  this  restricted  form  the  College  of  Fort  WilHam 
was  maintained  for  many  years.  It  took  the  writers 
after  they  had  finished  their  preparatory  studies  in 
England  and  gave  them  a  fuller  instruction  in  Orien- 
tal subjects.  The  length  of  time  that  students  re- 
mained at  the  college  depended  upon  the  rapidity 
with  which  they  could  acquire  the  necessary  knowl- 
edge. The  period  varied,  in  fact,  from  six  months 
to  two,  three,  or  four  years,  and  sometimes  men  were 
eliminated  altogether  whom  the  excessive  leniency 
of  Haileybury  had  spared  before.  In  1854,  when 
competitive  examinations  for  the  Civil  Service  of  India 
were  introduced,  the  College  at  Fort  William  was 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  II 

abolished ;  but  examinations  in  Oriental  subjects, 
though  without  any  collegiate  life,  continued  to  be 
held  in  India  until  the  establishment,  in  1866,  of  a 
two-years  course  of  special  training  in  England. 

The  College  at  H alley  bury 

Partly  as  a  substitute  for  Lord  Wellesley's  plan  of 
a  college  in  India,  partly  as  ancillary  to  that  college, 
and  partly  on  account  of  a  suggestion  from  the  factory 
at  Canton  that  it  would  be  an  advantage  to  have  the 
writers  go  to  the  East  at  a  later  age  and  with  a  better 
education,  the  Company  decided  to  establish  a  college 
for  the  training  of  its  civil  servants  in  England.  This 
institution,  officially  called  the  East  India  College, 
but  commonly  known  from  the  name  of  the  place  as 
H  alley  bury,  was  estabUshed  in  1806,  in  Hertfordshire, 
about  twelve  miles  from  London.  It  became  the 
regular  door  of  entrance  into  the  East  India  Civil 
Service.  In  fact,  a  statute  provided  in  1813  (53 
Geo.  III.,  c.  155,  sec.  46)  that  no  writer  should  be 
sent  to  India  unless  he  had  been  duly  entered  at 
Haileybury,  had  resided  there  four  terms,  and  had 
conformed  to  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  col- 
lege.^ The  scholars  were  still  nominated,  as  of 
old,  by  the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company, 
but  instead  of  an  inquiry  by  a  committee  into  the 

^  Owing  to  lack  of  a  sufficient  number  of  graduates,  this  act  was 
suspended  for  three  years  in  1826,  by  7  Geo.  IV.,  c.  56.  In  1837 
twenty-one  years  was  fixed  as  the  maximum  age  for  admission  to 
Haileybury  and  twenty-three  for  appointment  to  India,  (t  Vic,  c. 
70,  sees.  4,  5.) 


12  ENGLAND 

qualifications  of  the  nominees  there  was  an  examina- 
tion, which  in  later  years,  at  least,  covered  Greek, 
Latin,  Mathematics,  English  History,  Geography, 
and  Paley's  "  Evidences "  and  Moral  Philosophy. 
The  examination  seems  to  have  been  a  real  test  in 
the  later  days,  if  not  in  the  earlier;  for  in  1839  we 
find  that  thirty  candidates  passed  it  while  about  ten 
were  rejected.^ 

The  college  was  intended  to  give  a  general  edu- 
cation, as  well  as  a  training  in  the  special  subjects 
needed  by  the  Indian  civil  servants,  and,  in  fact, 
nearly  two-thirds  of  the  time  was  devoted  to  liberal 
studies,  which  were  modelled  mainly  upon  the  course 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  The  curriculum 
included  Classics,  Mathematics,  Law,  Political  Econ- 
omy, and  History,  among  the  liberal  studies,  and 
of  the  Oriental  studies,  which  were  confined  entirely 
to  languages,  Sanskrit,  Persian,  and  Hindustani  were 
required,  while  the  other  native  languages  were  op- 
tional.2  At  first  the  standard  was  not  very  high,  and 
a  clever,  hard-working  boy  could  get  through  the 
course  in  a  year,  but  afterward  the  students  were 

^  See  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  by  Frederick  Charles 
Danvers,  Sir  M.  Monier-Williams,  etc.,  Westminster,  1894.  pp.  40-42. 
When  the  Company's  charter  was  renewed  in  1833  it  was  provided 
(3  and  4.  Wil.  IV.  c.  85,  sees.  103,  105)  that  four  times  as  many  can- 
didates should  be  nominated  as  there  were  vacancies,  and  that  the  men 
to  be  admitted  to  the  college  should  be  selected  among  them  by  competi- 
tive examination ;  but  the  suspension  of  this  provision  was  authorized 
four  years  later  (I.  Vic.  c.  70,  sec.  i ) . 

2  The  most  difficult  subject  was  law,  and  the  great  prize  was  the 
medal  in  law,  the  next  object  of  ambition  being  the  English  essay. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  13 

obliged  to  reside  four  terms,  or  two  years,  at  the 
college,  and  to  pass  an  examination  in  both  Euro- 
pean and  Oriental  subjects  at  the  end  of  each  term. 
The  introduction  of  examinations  was  the  result  of 
a  hard  struggle  of  the  professors  with  the  Directors 
of  the  Company,  who  were  inclined  to  make  the  pas- 
sage through  Haileybury  as  easy  as  possible  for  their 
nominees.  Gradually  the  professors  succeeded,  and 
little  by  little  they  established  an  effective  series  of 
examinations. 

Merits  and  Faults  of  Haileybury 

During  the  whole  course  of  its  existence  Hailey- 
bury was  subjected  to  severe  criticism,  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  tone  of  the  institution  was  not 
as  high  as  it  would  have  been  under  more  favorable 
conditions.  It  was  hard  to  maintain  proper  dis- 
cipline, or  to  get  rid  of  the  black  sheep,  "  the  Com- 
pany's bad  bargains,"  as  they  were  commonly  called, 
because  the  Directors  persisted  in  protecting  their 
nominees  from  punishment.  In  fact,  the  college 
suffered  from  the  irremediable  defect  of  having  the 
same  persons  —  the  Directors  of  the  East  India 
Company  —  govern  an  institution  which  was  the 
gateway  to  a  lucrative  career  and  nominate  the  stu- 
dents who  were  to  be  admitted  to  it.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  teaching  at  Haileybury  seems  to  have  been 
of  a  high  order.  Among  the  original  professors 
was  Malthus,  while  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and  Sir 
James  Stephen  were   added  later.      Sir  M.  Monier- 


14  ENGLAND 

Williams,  indeed,  goes  so  far  as  to  say  of  the  teach- 
ing i :  — 

"Furthermore,  I  may  say  that,  according  to  my  own 
individual  experience  as  a  student,  the  mental  training 
which  I  gained  at  old  Haileybury  was  so  varied  and  ex- 
cellent that  nothing  at  all  equal  to  it  —  at  any  rate  in  the 
diversity  of  subjects  which  it  embraced  —  was  to  be  had 
either  at  the  Universities  or  elsewhere." 

Moreover,  the  college  produced  an  esprit  de  corps 
which  was  afterward  acknowledged  to  have  been  of 
great  value ;  for  although  a  spirit  of  this  kind  has 
the  defect  of  fostering  a  certain  cliquishness  among 
the  members,  their  knowledge  of  each  other's  capa- 
bilities promotes,  on  the  other  hand,  the  efficiency  of 
the  service  as  a  whole,  and  their  mutual  confidence  in- 
creases their  moral  force.  It  must  be  borne  in  mind 
also,  in  estimating  the  usefulness  of  the  institution, 
that  from  its  quadrangle  have  come  forth  the  bulk  of 
the  men  who  have  ruled  India  during  half  a  century. 

The  defects  of  Haileybury  might  have  been  cured 
by  abolishing  the  Directors'  right  of  nomination,  and 
taking  away  from  them  the  control  of  the  college. 
The  spirit  of  the  age  and  Macaulay  were,  in  fact, 
opposed  to  the  privileges  of  nomination ;  but  the 
college  itself  was  so  thoroughly  associated  in  the 
public  mind  with  the  Company's  method  of  select- 
ing its  officials  that  they  fell  together,  and  the  bill 
to  abolish  Haileybury  was  passed  by  Parhament  in 
1855  without  debate. 

1  ♦'  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury,"  p.  75. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  15 

Introduction  of  Competitive  Examinations 

The  nomination  of  the  students  by  the  Directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  continued  until  the  last 
renewal  of  the  Company's  charter  in  1853.  It  was 
the  habit  on  each  of  these  occasions,  which  came 
every  twenty  years,  to  pare  down  the  Company's 
privileges,  and  in  this  case  it  was  provided  (16-17 
Vic,  c.  95,  sees.  36  and  37)^  that:  — 

"  All  Powers,  Rights,  or  Privileges  of  the  Court  of  Direc- 
tors of  the  said  Company  to  nominate  Persons  to  be  admitted 
as  Students  "  should  cease ;  and  that  "  Subject  to  Such  Regu- 
lations as  may  be  made  by  the  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  the  Affairs  of  India,  any  Person  being  a  natural  born 
Subject  of  Her  Majesty  who  may  be  desirous  of  being  ad- 
mitted into  the  said  college  at  Haileybury,  shall  be  admitted 
to  be  examined  as  a  Candidate  for  such  admission." 

The  Report  of  Macaulay  s  Comm.ission 

The  principle  of  competitive  examination  was  thus 
introduced,  and  in  order  to  form  a  plan  to  carry  it 
into  effect  a  commission  was  appointed,  consisting  of 
Macaulay,  Lord  Ashburton,  Dr.  MelvilP  (principal 
of  Haileybury  College),  Jowett  (afterward  master  of 
Balliol  College,  Oxford),  and  John  George  Shaw  Le- 
fevre.  The  report,  which  bears  on  its  face  unmistak- 
able traces  both  of  the  opinions  and  the  craftsmanship 
of  Macaulay,  remains  at  the  present  day  at  the  foun- 

1  See  also  21-22  Vic,  c.  106,  sec.  32. 

2  Melvill  was  constantly  outvoted  by  the  other  members  of  the 
commission,  but  signed  the  report. 


l6  ENGLAND 

dation  of  the  system  of  recruiting  Indian  Officials, 
It  is,  in  fact,  a  remarkable  document,  and  is  printed 
in  full  as  an  appendix  to  this  chapter.  It  laid  down 
three  main  principles,  the  first  of  which  is  contained 
in  the  following  paragraph  :  — 

"  It  seems  to  us  that  it  would  be  a  great  improvement  to 
allow  students  to  be  admitted  to  the  college  up  to  the  age 
of  twenty-three,  and  to  fix  twenty-five  as  the  latest  age  at 
which  they  can  go  out  to  India  in  the  Civil  Service.  It  is 
undoubtedly  desirable  that  the  Civil  Servant  of  the  Com- 
pany should  enter  on  his  duties  while  still  young ;  but  it  is 
also  desirable  that  he  should  have  received  the  best,  the 
most  liberal,  the  most  finished  education  that  his  native 
country  affords.  Such  an  education  has  been  proved  by 
experience  to  be  the  best  preparation  for  every  calling 
which  requires  the  exercise  of  the  higher  powers  of  the 
mind ;  nor  will  it  be  easy  to  show  that  such  preparation  is 
less  desirable  in  the  case  of  a  Civil  Servant  of  the  East  India 
Company  than  in  the  case  of  a  professional  man  who 
remains  in  England.  Indeed,  in  the  case  of  the  Civil  Ser- 
vant of  the  Company  a  good  general  education  is  even  more 
desirable  than  in  the  case  of  the  English  professional  man ; 
for  the  duties  even  of  a  very  young  servant  of  the  Company 
are  more  important  than  those  which  ordinarily  fall  to  the 
lot  of  a  professional  man  in  England.  In  England,  too,  a 
professional  man  may,  while  engaged  in  active  business,  con- 
tinue to  improve  his  mind  by  means  of  reading  and  of  con- 
versation. But  the  servant  of  the  Company  is  often  stationed, 
during  a  large  part  of  his  life,  at  a  great  distance  from  libraries 
and  from  European  society,  and  will  therefore  find  it  pecul- 
iarly difficult  to  supply  by  study  in  his  mature  years  the 
deficiencies  of  his  early  training. 

"The  change  which  we  propose  will  have  one  practical 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  17 

effect  to  which  we  attach  much  importance.  We  think  it 
desirable  that  a  considerable  number  of  the  Civil  Servants 
of  the  Company  should  be  men  who  have  taken  the  first 
degree  in  arts  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge," 

The  second  principle  was  that  the  examination 
should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  no  man  should  be 
deterred  from  going  into  it  by  the  necessity  of  spend- 
ing time  in  preparation  which  would  be  thrown  away 
in  case  he  were  unsuccessful.  The  language  of  the 
committee  is  as  follows  :  — 

"  The  great  majority,  and  among  them  many  young  men 
of  excellent  abilities  and  laudable  industry,  must  be  unsuc- 
cessful. If,  therefore,  branches  of  knowledge  specially 
Oriental  should  be  among  the  subjects  of  examination,  it  is 
probable  that  a  considerable  number  of  the  most  hopeful 
youths  in  the  country  will  be  induced  to  waste  much  time, 
at  that  period  of  life  at  which  time  is  most  precious,  in 
studies  which  will  never,  in  any  conceivable  case,  be  of  the 
smallest  use  to  them.  We  think  it  most  desirable  that  the 
examination  should  be  of  such  a  nature  that  no  candidate 
who  may  fail  shall,  to  whatever  calling  he  may  betake  him- 
self, have  any  reason  to  regret  the  time  and  labour  which 
he  spent  in  preparing  himself  to  be  examined. 

"  Nor  do  we  think  that  we  should  render  any  service  to 
India  by  inducing  her  future  rulers  to  neglect,  in  their 
earlier  years,  European  literature  and  science,  for  studies 
specially  Indian.  We  believe  that  men  who  have  been  en- 
gaged, up  to  one  or  two  and  twenty,  in  studies  which  have 
no  immediate  connexion  with  the  business  of  any  profession, 
and  of  which  the  effect  is  merely  to  open,  to  invigorate,  and 
to  enrich  the  mind,  will  generally  be  found,  in  the  business 
of  every  profession,  superior  to  men  who  have,  at  eighteea 
c 


l8  ENGLAND 

or  nineteen,  devoted  themselves  to  the  special  studies  oi 
their  calling.  The  most  illustrious  English  jurists  have  been 
men  who  have  never  opened  a  law  book  till  after  the  close 
of  a  distinguished  academical  career ;  nor  is  there  any  rea- 
son to  believe  that  they  would  have  been  greater  lawyers  if 
they  had  passed  in  drawing  pleas  and  conveyances  the  time 
which  they  gave  to  Thucydides,  to  Cicero,  and  to  Newton. 
The  duties  of  a  Civil  Servant  of  the  East  India  Company  are 
of  so  high  a  nature  that  in  his  case  it  is  peculiarly  desirable  that 
an  excellent  general  education,  such  as  may  enlarge  and 
strengthen  his  understanding,  should  precede  the  special 
education  which  must  qualify  him  to  despatch  the  business 
of  his  cutcherry." 

The  first  two  principles  laid  down  by  the  commis- 
sion were,  therefore,  that  the  competitive  examination 
should  be  such  as  to  require  a  very  high  degree  of 
general  education,  but  that  it  should  not  be  such 
as  to  require  any  special  or  technical  study  of  India. 

In  order  to  carry  out  these  two  principles  the 
report  recommended  that  the  examination  should  not 
extend  to  those  branches  of  knowledge  which  are 
useful  to  a  servant  of  the  East  India  Company,  but 
useless,  or  almost  useless,  to  a  person  whose  life  is  to 
be  passed  in  Europe ;  but  should  be  coniined  to  those 
branches  of  knowledge  to  which  it  is  desirable  that 
English  gentlemen  who  mean  to  remain  at  home 
should  pay  some  attention.  With  this  object  they 
recommended  that  the  examination  should  cover  all 
those  subjects,  and  those  alone,  which  were  habitually 
studied  at  the  Universities  in  the  United  Kingdom ;  and 
in  order  not  to  give  preference  to  any  one  University, 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  tg 

or  to  one  part  of  the  kingdom  over  another,  the  com- 
mission suggested  that  the  examination  should  cover 
a  large  list  of  subjects  from  which  the  candidate 
might  select  those  in  which  he  preferred  to  be  exam- 
ined,—  each  subject  to  be  assigned  a  maximum  mark 
in  proportion  to  the  amount  of  work  required  to  ob- 
tain an  acquaintance  with  it.  In  order  at  the  same 
time  not  to  make  the  examination  a  premium  on 
knowledge  of  wide  surface  and  small  depth,  but  to 
require  really  profound  and  accurate  acquaintance 
with  a  certain  number  of  subjects,  they  recommended 
that  a  candidate  should  not  be  credited  for  taking  up 
a  subject  in  which  he  was  a  mere  smatterer. 

The  third  principle  laid  down  by  the  commission 
was  a  corollary  from  the  other  two.  It  was  that  the 
successful  candidates  should  be  considered  to  have 
finished  their  general  education,  and  that  from 
this  time,  for  a  period  of  not  less  than  one  year,  nor 
more  than  two  years,  they  should  give  their  whole 
minds  to  the  study  in  England  of  their  special  duties 
in  India. 

The  report  then  goes  on  to  describe  what  these 
last  studies  should  be,  and  mentions  the  history  of 
India,  the  general  principles  of  jurisprudence,  finan- 
cial and  commercial  science,  and  the  vernacular 
languages  of  India. 

While  the  commission  did  not  recommend  the 
abolition  of  H  alley  bury,  they  pointed  out  that  the 
change  in  the  age  and  education  of  the  students 
would  involve  a  radical  change  in  the  system  of  disci- 


io  England 

pline  and  instruction  there ;  and  they  recommended 
an  attendance  at  the  courts  of  law  for  the  purpose  of 
observing  the  actual  administration  of  justice,  which 
was  really  incompatible  with  residence  at  Haileybury. 

Gradual  Reduction  of  the  Age  of  Candidates 

The  report  of  the  commission,  so  far  as  it  related 
to  the  examination  of  candidates,  was  put  into  effect 
at  once.  Haileybury  was  abolished,  and  the  competi- 
tive system  of  examination,  on  the  lines  laid  down  by 
the  report,  was  established.  But  owing  to  the  dis- 
turbed condition  of  India,  and  the  mutiny  which  fol- 
lowed, the  successful  candidates  for  the  first  few  years 
were  despatched  to  India  without  further  training  in 
England.  In  the  year  1859  "^  probational  year  of 
study  in  England  was  finally  instituted,  but  in  order 
not  to  increase  the  age  at  which  the  recruits  for  the 
civil  service  went  to  India  an  important  change 
was  made  in  Lord  Macaulay's  plan.  It  has  been 
pointed  out  that  with  a  view  of  enabling  the  candi- 
dates to  complete  a  University  education  the  report 
of  the  commission  recommended  a  minimum  age  of 
eighteen  and  a  maximum  of  twenty-three  at  the  ex- 
amination. This  with  one  or  two  years'  special  study 
in  England  would  bring  the  maximum  age  of  going  to 
India  up  to  twenty-four  or  twenty-five,  which  was  an 
advance  of  a  year  or  two  over  the  age  at  which 
they  had  been  in  the  habit  of  going  out  from  Hailey- 
bury. The  absence,  however,  of  any  actual  period 
of  probation  in  England  during  the  first  few  years  of 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA  21 

the  new  system  left  the  age  of  going  to  India  about 
the  same  as  it  had  been  before ;  but  when  the  proba- 
tion of  one  year  was  established  it  was  felt  that  the 
age  of  departure  for  the  East  would  be  too  great,  and 
therefore  the  maximum  age  for  candidates  at  the 
examination  was  reduced  from  twenty-three  to  twenty- 
two.  The  same  motive  induced  Lord  Lawrence  to 
say  in  1864  that  men  came  out  too  old,  and  to  urge 
strongly  that  the  age  should  not  be  increased.  The 
result  was  that  when  in  1866  a  second  year  of  proba- 
tion was  introduced  in  England,  the  maximum  age  for 
candidates  at  the  examination  was  still  further  re- 
duced from  twenty-two  to  twenty-one,  the  minimum 
being  reduced  to  seventeen ;  and  this  although  at  the 
same  time  the  residence  of  the  young  civil  servants 
at  the  Presidency  towns  in  India  for  the  study  of  the 
languages  was  abolished,  and  they  were  assigned  to 
definite  duties  immediately  upon  their  arrival 

Inquiry  into  the  System  in  1876 

This  system  did  not  prove  altogether  satisfactory, 
and  after  it  had  been  in  operation  for  ten  years,  Lord 
Salisbury,  then  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India, 
opened  an  investigation  with  a  view  of  determining 
the  nature  of  possible  changes. 

The  correspondence  on  the  subject,  including  the 
opinions  of  a  large  number  of  members  of  the  Indian 
Civil  Service,  was  printed  in  a  blue-book.^     One  of 

^  Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446. 


22  ENGLAND 

the  chief  objections  to  the  system  was  that  the  age 
was  such  as  to  make  it  very  difficult  for  young  men 
to  take  the  examination  either  before  or  after  going 
to  a  University.  It  came  in  what  would  naturally  be 
the  middle  of  a  University  career,  and  the  result  had 
been  a  decided  falling  off  in  the  proportion  of  candi- 
dates from  the  Universities,  until  only  a  small  frac- 
tion of  the  men  appointed  had  University  degrees.^ 

Connected  with  this  was  the  increasing  habit  of 
cramming  for  the  examination  under  special  teachers. 
There  was  some  difference  of  opinion  on  the  question 
whether  this  practice  was  in  itself  an  evil  or  not, 
whether  the  students  did  or  did  not  get  a  sound  edu- 
cation by  the  process ;  but  that  the  habit  had  in- 
creased very  much  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  1865 
only  323^  per  cent  of  the  successful  candidates  were 
crammed  by  special  teachers,  and  that  the  average 
time  spent  in  such  preparation  was  six  or  seven 
months,  while  in  1874  the  percentage  of  successful 
candidates  who  crammed  had  risen  to  84^^^,  and  the 
average  time  spent  in  such  preparation  was  fifteen  or 
sixteen  months.^  Another  objection  to  the  existing 
system  related  to  the  subsequent  preparation  of 
the  candidates  for  the  service.  After  they  had 
succeeded  in  the  competitive  examination,  the  Gov- 


1  Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446,  pp.  120-121,  242.  There  seems  to  have 
been  a  general  belief  that  the  quality  of  the  successful  candidates  had 
fallen  off,  although  there  was  not  a  general  agreement  about  the  cause. 
Cf.  Id.,  pp.  265,  266,  271-273. 

a  Id.,  p.  40. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  23 

ernment  encouraged  them  to  spend  their  time  in 
London ;  and  in  fact  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
advised  them  to  do  so,  on  the  ground  that  they  could 
there,  much  more  readily  than  elsewhere,  observe  the 
trials  in  the  law  courts,  which  the  Commissioners 
considered  a  very  important  part  of  their  prepara- 
tion, —  an  opinion,  by  the  way,  not  shared  by  the 
authorities  in  India.^  The  defect  of  this  method  of 
training  was  that,  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
being  unable  to  pay  any  real  attention  to  the 
selected  candidates,  they  were  under  no  supervision.^ 
They  were  left  to  themselves  in  lodgings  in  London, 
where  they  got  none  of  the  esprit  de  corps  that  pre- 
vailed at  Haileybury,  and  none  of  the  benefit  of  inti- 
mate association  with  a  large  number  of  young  men 
such  as  is  found  at  the  Universities. 

These  evils  were  very  generally  recognized,  al- 
though there  was  great  diversity  of  opinion  in  regard 
to  the  method  of  curing  them.  It  was  suggested  by 
the  University  of  Oxford  that,  if  the  age  were  reduced, 
boys  could  take  the  examination  immediately  after 
leaving  school,  and  that  after  passing  it  they  could  go 
to  a  University,  and  stay  long  enough  to  obtain  a 
degree,  devoting  only  a  part  of  their  time  to  the 
special  studies  relating  to  India,  and  a  part  of  it  to 
the  ordinary  studies  of  the  University.  On  the  other 
hand,  Jowett  urged  that,  for  University  men,  at  least, 

1  Id.,  p.  53. 

2  This  is  assumed  throughout  the  discussion,  e.g.  id,,  pp.  5,  53,  73, 
228,  274,  323. 


24  ENGLAND 

the  age  should  be  increased  to  twenty-two,  so  that 
graduates  might  compete,  and  that  the  successful 
candidates  should  be  encouraged  to  spend  their  time 
of  probation  at  a  University. 

There  was  a  great  deal  of  difference  of  opinion 
among  members  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service  on  these 
questions,  and  of  the  ninety-six  officers  of  all  ranks 
who  gave  their  opinion  with  regard  to  the  limit  of 
age  for  the  candidates  at  the  examination,  thirty-six 
were  in  favor  of  retaining  the  existing  limit,  twenty- 
seven  were  in  favor  of  reducing  it,  and  thirty-three 
were  in  favor  of  increasing  it.^  In  short,  on  this 
point  opinion  was  pretty  evenly  divided,  with  a  slight 
preponderance  in  favor  of  the  higher  limit  of  age. 
In  regard  to  the  subsequent  training  of  the  success- 
ful candidates  in  England,  twenty  of  the  ninety-eight 
officers  of  the  Civil  Service  were  in  favor  of  maintain- 
ing the  existing  system,  three  wanted  the  successful 
candidates  sent  to  India  at  once,  while  the  remaining 
seventy-five  advocated  the  association  of  the  success- 
ful competitors  together  in  some  form,  forty-seven 
preferring  distinctly  a  University  training,  and  four- 
teen being  favorable  to  it,  while  fourteen  preferred 
the  establishment  of  a  special  college.^ 

Reduction  of  the  Age  to  Nineteen 

When  the  question  came  before  the  Council  of 
India  in    England,    Sir    Henry   Maine,  who   had   a 

1  Summary  in  the  Minute  of  the  Viceroy.  Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446, 
p.  226,  a  Id.,  pp.  231-233. 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA  25 

strong  leaning  toward  an  early  specialization  of 
studies,  favored  a  lowering  of  the  age,  and  his  advice 
was  followed  by  most  of  his  colleagues.^  Lord 
Salisbury,  in  his  despatch  to  the  Indian  Government 
of  February  24,  1876,  announced  his  decision  to 
lower  the  maximum  age  to  nineteen ;  on  the  ground 
that  an  increase  in  the  age  would  not  be  likely  to 
result  in  a  larger  number  of  candidates  going  to  the 
Universities  beforehand,  while  a  lowering  of  the  age 
could  be  made  to  lead  to  their  going  there  afterward ; 
and  on  the  ground  that  the  lower  age  would  leave 
men  who  failed  in  the  examination  in  a  better  posi- 
tion to  enter  upon  another  career.  He  also  an- 
nounced that  the  Government  had  decided  to  encour- 
age successful  candidates  to  pass  their  period  of  pro- 
bation at  a  University,  by  making  them  an  allowance 
from  the  treasury  of  ;^i50  a  year,  dependent  upon 
their  so  doing.^ 

It  is  a  striking  fact  that  the  Indian  officials 
commended  almost  unanimously  the  system  of  com- 
petitive examination.  It  was,  indeed,  far  more  uni- 
versally approved  in  India  than  in  England.  The 
chief  objection  urged  against  it  was  that  it  enabled 
men  of  low  birth  and  breeding  to  get  into  the  ser- 
vice ;  ^  for  all  people  familiar  with  India,  or  with 
any  part  of  the  English  possessions  in  Asia,  are 
agreed  that  one  of  the  most  important  qualifications 
of  a  member  of  the  civil  service  in  the  East  is  that 
he  should  b^  a  gentleman.     The  Oriental  feels  and 

1  /</.,  pp.  305  et  seq.         «  Id.,  pp.  323-326.        «  Cf.  Id.,  pp.  62,  243. 


26       •  ENGLAND 

resents  at  once  the  rule  of  a  man  who  has  not  been 
surrounded  by  culture  and  refinement  from  his  earli- 
est years.  The  difficulty  from  this  source  does  not, 
however,  seem  to  have  been  really  great,  for  it  ap- 
pears that  of  the  successful  candidates  during  the 
fifteen  years  from  i860  to  1874,  85  per  cent  were 
sons  of  professional  men,  merchants,  or  men  who 
lived  upon  their  property ;  ^  and  the  proportion  from 
these  classes  does  not  seem  to  have  diminished.^ 

Effect  of  the  Change 

The  change  made  in  1876  entailed  a  modification 
of  the  examinations,  a  reduction  of  the  requirements 
to  the  capacity  of  lads  of  eighteen  or  nineteen  years 
of  age,  with  the  natural  result  of  reversing  entirely 
Lord  Macaulay's  plan  that  the  candidates  should 
have  completed  a  general  education  before  they  went 
up  to  the  examination.  The  system  was  therefore 
open  to  objection  on  this  ground,  and  in  1874  Lord 
Ripon,  the  Viceroy,  wrote  in  a  Minute :  — 

"  So  far  as  the  European  candidates  are  concerned,  the 
education  which  they  now  receive  is  fundamentally  different 
from  that  which  was  contemplated  when  the  system  of  open 
competition  was  first  established,  and  is  much  less  well  cal- 
culated to  bring  into  the  Indian  Civil  Service  the  kind  of 
men  with  whom  it  is  most  desirable  that  it  should  be  filled."^ 

1  Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446,  p.  35. 

2  See  the  tables  at  end  of  Reports  of  Civil  Service  Commission  on 
the  Competition  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  1887-1890. 

8  Correspondence  relating  to  the  Report  of  the  Indian  Public  Ser- 
vice Commission,  Pari.  Papers,  1890,  c.  5926,  p.  85. 


CIVIL   SERVICE  OF   INDIA  2^ 

Nothing,  however,  was  done  about  the  matter  at  once; 
but  there  had  been  a  growing  feeling  for  some  time 
that  the  natives  ought  to  be  more  largely  employed  in 
the  public  service  of  their  own  land,  and  in  1886  a 
commission  consisting  of  eight  Englishmen  and  six 
natives  was  appointed  to  study  the  subject.  Among 
other  things  they  reported  that  the  limit  of  nineteen 
years  of  age  tended  to  exclude  natives  of  India  on 
account  of  the  difficulty  of  coming  to  England  and 
getting  an  education  before  that  time,  and  they  recom- 
mended that  the  maximum  limit  of  twenty-three 
years  should  be  restored.^ 

The  Age  again  raised  to  Twenty-three 

In  the  course  of  evidence  taken  by  this  commission, 
it  appeared  that  the  great  majority  of  the  Indian 
Civil  Servants  were  in  favor  of  raising  the  maximum 
age  of  English  candidates  at  the  examination,  and 
in  this  view  the  Governor  General,  supported  by  an 
almost  unanimous  opinion  of  his  Council,  concurred.^ 
The  majority  of  the  Council  of  India  in  England 
were  opposed  to  the  change,  mainly  on  the  ground 
that  it  would  cause  the  successful  candidates  to  go 
out  to  India  at  too  late  an  age,  and  that  it  would 
tend  to  increase  the  proportion  of  natives  in  the  Indian 
Civil  Service  to  such  an  extent  as  to  imperil  its  dis- 

^  Report  of  the  Public  Service  Commission,  1886-1887,  Pari.  Papers, 
1888,  c.  5327.  On  October  I,  1887,  there  were  in  the  Civil  Service 
only  twelve  natives  of  India  who  had  entered  through  the  competitive 
examination  in  England.     Id.,  p.  43. 

^  Correspondence,  etc.,  op.  cit.,  p.  10. 


28  ENGLAND 

tinctly  English  character.^  The  Secretary  of  State, 
Lord  Cross,  agreed,  however,  with  the  Viceroy.  Not 
only  had  the  proportion  of  successful  candidates  who 
had  attended  a  University  at  all  become  very  small,^ 
but  even  with  regard  to  the  public  schools  he  had 
information  which  tended  to  show  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  candidates  left  them  in  order  to  be 
crammed  for  the  examination  during  the  last  and 
most  valuable  period  of  school  training.^  He 
therefore  overruled  the  opinion  of  the  Council,  and 
restored  the  maximum'  limit  of  twenty-three  originally 
proposed  by  Lord  Macaulay.  The  reasons  for  this 
change,  which  went  into  effect  in  1892,  were,  there- 
fore, the  desire  of  giving  a  more  complete  education 
to  the  candidates,  and  the  desire  of  opening  the  ser- 
vice more  largely  to  natives  of  India.  The  first  of 
these  results,  as  we  shall  see,  has  been  accomplished ; 
but  in  regard  to  the  second,  neither  the  hopes  or 
the  fears  which  it  aroused  have  been  realized,  for  the 
number  of  natives  who  have  successfully  passed  the 
examination  has  not  been  considerable. 

1  Copy  of  Minutes  of  Dissent  from  the  Despatch  addressed  to  the 
Government  of  India  by  the  Secretary  of  State  in  Council,  regarding 
the  Age  of  the  Candidates  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  Accounts  and 
Papers,  1890,  Vol  14,  p.  i. 

2  From  the  reports  of  examinations  at  hand,  I  find  that  in  1887 
only  seventeen  out  of  forty-three  successful  candidates  had  been  to 
a  University  at  all;  in  1889,  only  seventeen  out  of  forty-nine;  in  1890, 
twenty-seven  out  of  forty-five. 

'  Correspondence,  etc.,  op.  cit.,  p.  86. 


CIVIL  SERVICE   OF   INDIA  29 

THE   PRESENT    REGULATION    OF   THE   EXAMINATION 

The  increase  in  the  age  involved,  of  course,  a  rais- 
ing of  the  standard  of  the  examination,  and  in  order 
to  attract  as  candidates  men  who  had  already  taken 
a  University  degree,  it  was  necessary  to  adapt  the 
examination  to  the  ordinary  curriculum.  Each  insti- 
tution naturally  desired  to  win  these  places  for  its 
own  graduates,  and  both  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
submitted  plans  for  the  examinations  which  would 
particularly  suit  their  own  courses  of  study.  The 
Civil  Service  Examiners  did  what  might  have  been 
expected.  They  adopted,  in  the  main,  the  sugges- 
tions of  Cambridge  in  regard  to  mathematics  and 
natural  science,  and  the  suggestions  of  Oxford  in 
regard  to  other  things.  It  is,  no  doubt,  partly  for 
this  reason  that  most  of  the  successful  candidates 
come  from  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  and  that  the 
Oxford  men  are  more  certain  to  succeed  when  they 
offer  classical  subjects,  and  the  Cambridge  men  when 
they  offer  mathematical  ones. 

Up  to  the  year  1895  the  examination  for  the  Civil 
Service  of  India  and  that  for  the  First  Class  Clerk- 
ships for  the  Home  Civil  Service  had  been  held  sepa- 
rately, although  the  requirements  for  the  two  were 
very  nearly  the  same.  In  that  year,  however,  the 
examinations  were  consolidated,  and  this  had  the 
great  advantage  of  enabling  a  candidate  to  compete 
for  both  positions  at  one  time.  The  number  of 
prizes  to  be  gained  at  the  examination  was  therefore 


30  ENGLAND 

larger  than  before,  and  the  competition  rendered  by 
so  much  the  more  attractive.  In  making  this  change 
the  number  of  subjects  that  could  be  offered  at  the 
examination  was  increased,  and  their  relative  value  in 
marks  somewhat  modified.  The  next  year  the  exam- 
ination for  the  Eastern  Cadets  —  that  is,  the  colonial 
service  in  Ceylon,  the  Straits  Settlements,  the  Malay 
Peninsula,  and  Hong  Kong  —  was  consolidated  with 
the  others,  and  thus  still  more  prizes  were  offered 
to  the  competitors.  Any  natural  born  subject  of 
her  Majesty,  of  good  health  and  of  good  moral  char- 
acter, may  offer  himself  as  a  competitor  for  one  or 
more  of  these  services,^  save  that  to  be  a  candidate 
for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  he  must  have  been 
between  the  ages  of  twenty-one  and  twenty-three,  on 
the  first  of  January  in  the  year  in  which  the  examina- 
tion is  held,  whereas  for  the  First  Class  Clerkships 
in  the  Home  Service  he  must  be  between  the  ages  of 
twenty-two  and  twenty-four  on  the  first  day  of  the 
examination,  and  for  the  Eastern  Cadetships  he  must 
have  been  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one  and 
twenty-four  on  the  first  day  of  August  of  the  year  in 
which  the  examination  is  held.^  Thus  a  candidate 
can  offer  himself  for  more  than  one  service  without 
making  a  selection  until  the  result  of  the  examination 

^  In  the  case  of  the  Home  Civil  Service,  certain  persons  in  the 
public  employ  cannot  offer  themselves  without  the  permission  of  their 
superiors. 

2  A  candidate  who  offers  himself  for  the  Home  Civil  Service,  the 
Eastern  Cadets,  or  both,  or  in  part  for  all  three  services,  is  required 
to  pay  a  fee  of  £(>;  but  if  he  offers  himself  for  the  Indian  Service 
alone,  no  fee  is  required. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  3 1 

is  declared.  When  the  order  of  merit  at  the  exami- 
nation has  been  fixed,  he  can  choose  the  service 
into  which  he  will  enter,  provided  all  the  vacancies 
therein  have  not  already  been  taken  by  men  who 
have  outranked  him  at  the  examination.  In  that  case 
he  can,  of  course,  have  a  place  only  in  a  service  in 
which  vacancies  still  remain.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  greater  part  of  the  men  offer  themselves  for  all 
three ;  and  although  there  is  no  absolute  rule,  they 
generally  like  the  Home  Service  best  and  the  East- 
ern Cadetships  least ;  so  that  the  men  who  rank 
highest  at  the  examination  are  usually,  though  not 
invariably,  selected  for  the  Home  Service,  men  of 
middle  rank  going  to  India,  while  the  Eastern  Cadet- 
ships  are  mainly  assigned  to  the  successful  candi- 
dates who  Have  the  lowest  average  of  marks.  The 
Home  Service  is  preferred  because,  while  the  pay  is 
less,  the  surroundings  are  more  agreeable,  and  because 
a  man  can  marry  at  any  time,  whereas  if  an  Indian 
Civilian  marries  before  his  departure  for  India  he  for- 
feits his  appointment.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Indian 
Service  is  preferred  to  an  Eastern  Cadetship,  because 
the  field  and  the  number  of  officials  being  larger, 
there  is  a  greater  opportunity  for  distinction. 

Method  of  Conducting  the  Examination 

The  competitive  examination  is  held  by  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners  every  year  in  August  at  Lon- 
don. The  Commissioners  give  notice  some  months 
beforehand  of  the  number  of  persons  to  be  selected 


32  ENGLAND 

for  each  of  the  services,  and  the  applications  of  can- 
didates for  examination  must  be  filed  on  or  before 
the  31st  of  May.  There  are  usually  about  one  hun- 
dred places  in  all  to  be  filled,  a  number  which  does 
not  vary  very  much  from  year  to  year.  I  have  said 
that  the  examination  is  conducted  by  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice Commissioners ;  but  as  it  is  intended  to  be  a  test 
of  really  thorough  knowledge  of  the  various  subjects 
treated,  evidently  specialists  alone  are  capable  of 
setting  the  papers  and  marking  the  examination 
books.  The  Commissioners  employ,  indeed,  a  num- 
ber of  permanent  official  examiners,  but  for  this 
purpose  their '  duties  are  really  clerical  and  the 
papers  are,  in  fact,  read  by  outsiders,  instructors  at 
Universities  and  others,  who  are  selected  for  the  pur- 
pose from  year  to  year.  " 

The  examinations  are  mainly  conducted  in  writing, 
three  hours  being  allowed  for  each  paper,  and  there 
is  a  three-hour  examination  every  morning  and 
another  every  afternoon  throughout  almost  the  whole 
of  the  month  of  August.  In  German  and  French 
there  are  also  oral  examinations  as  colloquial  tests, 
and  there  are  tests  in  the  laboratory  for  the  physical 
sciences. 

Nature  of  the  Examination 

The  examination  is  based  on  what  we  should  call 
an  elective  system.^     The   range  of  subjects  is  large ; 

1  In  Appendix  B  is  a  copy  of  the  notice  of  the  examination  by  the 
Civil   Service  Commissioners  in  1899,  containing  the  regulations   for 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF  INDIA  33 

but  no  one  of  them  is  obligatory,  and  on  the  other 
hand  the  candidate  may  take  as  many  as  he  pleases. 
To  each  subject  is  assigned  a  maximum  mark,  ad- 
justed to  the  supposed  difficulty  of  learning  it,  and 
by  the  scale  so  fixed  the  mark  of  any  candidate  in 
that  subject  is  graded. 

The    list    of    subjects   and   the   maximum   marks 
assigned  to  them  are  as  follows :  — 

Marks 

English  Composition 500 

Sanskrit  Language  and  Literature 500 

Arabic  Language  and  Literature 500 

Greek  Language  and  Literature 750 

Latin  Language  and  Literature 750 

English  Language  and  Literature  (including  special  period 

named  by  the  Commissioners)      .....  500 

French  Language  and  Literature 500 

German  Language  and  Literature 500 

Mathematics  (pure  and  applied) 900 

Advanced  Mathematical  subjects  (pure  and  applied)  .  900 

Natural  Science,  i.e.  any  number  not  exceeding  three  of 

the  following  subjects  :  — 

Elementary  Chemistry  and  Elementary  Physics  600 

(N.  B. — This  subject  may  not  be  taken  up  by  those  who 
offer  either  Higher  Chemistry  or  Higher  Physics.) 

Higher  Chemistry 600 

Higher  Physics 600  \  1,800 

Geology 600 

Botany 600 

Zoology 600 

Animal  Physiology 600 

Greek  History  (Ancient,  including  Constitution)      .         .      400 

the  examination  and  for  the  subsequent  training  of  the  selected  can- 
didates.    Following  it,  is  a  copy  of  the  Syllabus,  issued  at  the  same 
time,  showing  the  extent  of  the  examination  in  certain  subjects. 
D 


34  ENGLAND 

Marks 

Roman  History  (Ancient,  including  Constitution)    .         .      400 

English  History 500 

General  Modern  History  (one  of  the  periods  specified  in 

the  Syllabus  issued  by  the  Commissioners)  .         .         .       500 
Logic  and  Mental  Philosophy  (Ancient  and  Modern)        .       400 
Moral  Philosophy  (Ancient  and  Modern)  .         ,         .       400 

Political  Economy  and  Economic  History         .         .         .       500 
Political  Science  (including  Analytical  Jurisprudence,  the 

Early  History  of  Institutions,  and  Theory  of  Legislation)     500 
Roman  Law      .........       500 

English  Law.  Under  the  head  of  "English  Law"  shall 
be  included  the  following  subjects,  viz.:  (i)  Law  of 
Contract ;  (2)  Law  of  Evidence ;  (3)  Law  of  the  Con- 
stitution ;  (4)  Criminal  Law;  (5)  Law  of  Real  Prop- 
erty ;  and  of  these  five  subjects  Candidates  shall  be  at 
liberty  to  offer  any  four,  but  not  more  than  four   .         .       500 

The  Method  of  Marking 

One  might  naturally  expect  with  such  a  system 
that  every  student  would  take  a  large  number  of  sub- 
jects, of  which  he  knew  little,  but  in  which  his  marks, 
though  individually  small,  would  in  the  aggregate 
amount  to  a  considerable  figure.  That  this  does  not 
happen  is  due  to  the  precautions  taken,  as  suggested 
by  Macaulay's  Commission,  that  no  credit  shall  be 
gained  by  a  mere  smatterer.  The  regulations  ex- 
pressly provide  that  "the  marks  assigned  to  candi- 
dates in  each  branch  will  be  subject  to  such  deduction 
as  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  may  deem  neces- 
sary in  order  to  secure  that  no  credit  be  allowed  for 
merely  superficial  knowledge."  Various  methods  of 
deduction  have  been  adopted  from  time  to  time,  with 
a  view  of  carrying  out  this  rule,  but  the  following 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  35 

plan  has  been  finally  fixed  upon  and   is  in  use  at 
the  present  day. 

In  every  subject,  except  English  Composition  and 
Mathematics,  20  per  cent  of  the  maximum  in  the 
subject  is  deducted  from  the  mark  given  to  the  can- 
didate at  the  examination,  and  then  the  mark  remain- 
ing is  increased  by  25  per  cent  of  itself  to  obtain  the 
actual  credit  allowed  to  him.  Thus  if  the  official 
mark  of  the  candidate  is  the  maximum,  he  is  credited 
with  the  whole  of  it,  because  the  diminution  of  20 
per  cent  reduces  his  mark  to  80  per  cent,  and  the 
addition  of  25  per  cent  of  this  brings  the  mark 
up  to  the  maximum  again.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  original  mark  is  20  or  below,  he  receives  no 
credit  at  all ;  and  for  marks  between  20  and  100 
the  deduction  is  in  inverse  proportion  to  the  size  of 
the  mark.  No  such  deduction  is  made  in  Mathe- 
matics, because  it  is  believed  that  in  Mathematics  no 
man  can  be  a  mere  smatterer.  Why  it  is  not  made  in 
English  Composition  I  do  not  know.  The  system 
appears  to  be  effectual  in  discarding  broad  but  super- 
ficial study.  In  1898,  for  example,  we  find  that  the 
successful  candidates  offered  on  the  average  nine  and 
two-thirds  subjects  out  of  a  possible  twenty-three ;  ^ 
and  even  this  number  is  in  reality  smaller  than  it  ap- 
pears, for  some  of  the  subjects  are  merely  different 
parts  of  the  same  field  of  study,  and  are  generally 

^  The  Civil  Service  Commissioners  publish  every  year,  after  the 
examination,  copies  of  all  the  examination  papers  and  a  list  of  the 
marks  obtained  by  every  candidate  in  each  subject. 


36  ENGLAND 

taken  together.  Such,  for  example,  are  Mathematics 
and  Advanced  Mathematics,  and  Mental  and  Moral 
Philosophy;  while  Latin  and  Greek,  Roman  and 
Greek  History,  are  all  four  usually  offered  together, 
and  almost  everybody  who  offers  English  History 
tries  also  General  Modern  History. 

Nature  of  the  Subjects 

The  selection  of  subjects  by  the  candidates  is  inter- 
esting. Everybody  tries  English  Composition,  be- 
cause he  can  be  sure  to  count  something  upon  it; 
and  almost  everybody  offers  Political  Science,  because 
he  thinks  he  can  get  some  credit  in  it  on  the  strength 
of  his  general  knowledge.  At  least  two-thirds 
of  the  successful  men  offer  Latin  and  Greek.  The 
proportion  was  larger  formerly,  but  has  diminished 
somewhat  of  late  years.  More  than  half  of  the  rest 
offer  Mathematics ;  but  Mathematics  and  Classics 
are  naturally  rarely  offered  by  the  same  man.  About 
three-quarters  of  the  men  try  General  Modern  His- 
tory, and  nearly  two-thirds  Political  Economy.  Only 
about  one-third  offer  English  History,  because  the 
questions  are  largely  upon  constitutional  matters.  A 
fair  number  select  French  and  Philosophy ;  German 
and  Law  are  less  commonly  taken ;  few  offer  Physi- 
cal Science ;  and  Sanskrit  and  Arabic  are  offered 
only  by  Natives  of  India. 

It  will  be  observed  that  none  of  these  subjects  has 
any  direct  bearing  upon  the  future  work  of  the  Indian 
official.     They  are  all  tests  of  general  education ;  that 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  37 

is,  of  the  candidate's  knowledge  of  subjects  which  are 
general  with  regard  to  his  future  career,  which  have, 
in  other  wcards,  no  immediate  relation  to  it.  This  is 
true  even  of  Sanskrit  and  Arabic ;  for  although  those 
languages  have  a  philological  connection  with  the 
tongues  spoken  in  India,  they  are  nevertheless  classi- 
cal, not  living,  languages,  and  bear  something  the 
relation  to  the  modern  tongues  of  India,  that  Latin 
does  to  the  existing  languages  of  Europe.  With  the 
exception  of  these  two  subjects,  which  are  retained 
really  in  order  to  give  the  native  of  India  a  chance  to 
offer  his  classical  languages,  as  the  Englishman  offers 
Latin  and  Greek,  the  list  of  subjects  is  arranged  with 
a  view  to  the  existing  education  in  England,  Scot- 
land, and  Ireland,  the  object  being  to  enable  a  gradu- 
ate of  any  University  to  offer  what  he  has  been 
studying  there. 

Severity  of  the  Examination 

The  examination  papers  are  such  as  might  be  set, 
in  an  American  University,  for  graduation  honors  or 
for  a  Ph.D.  But  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
are  prepared  by  men  who  have  nothing  to  do  with 
the  instruction  of  the  candidates,  and  hence  are  really 
more  difficult  than  similar  papers,  set  by  a  professor 
to  his  own  students,  would  be  in  America.  It  is  all 
the  more  important  for  this  reason  that  the  practice 
should  be  followed,  which  ought  always  to  be  adopted 
when  testing  thorough  scholarship,  of  giving  the  can- 
didate  an   option   among   the    questions    presented. 


38  ENGLAND 

Except  for  translations  from  foreign  languages,  this 
is,  in  fact,  done  in  the  case  of  almost  all  the  papers, 
the  candidate  being  usually  required  to  answer  from 
one-half  to  three-fourths  of  the  questions.  The  mark- 
ing of  the  books  is  distinctly  severe,  a  mark  of  two- 
thirds  of  the  maximum  being  rare. 

Previous  Preparation  of  the  Candidates 

The  number  of  candidates  is  sufficient  to  insure  a 
serious  competition,  for  there  are  usually  about  twice 
and  a  half  as  many  of  them  as  there  are  places  to  be 
filled.  No  statistics  are  published  of  the  preparation 
of  the  unsuccessful  candidates,  but  that  is  of  little 
consequence,  for  it  is  the  quality  of  the  successful 
ones  that  is  alone  of  importance,  and  for  each  of 
these  the  report  of  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 
gives,  year  by  year,  the  name  of  the  University  at 
which  he  has  been  educated.  The  Oxford  Magazine 
furnishes  still  more  valuable  information ;  for  it  dis- 
cusses each  year  the  results  of  the  examination,  and 
tells  not  only  the  Universities  attended  by  the  suc- 
cessful candidates,  but  also  the  length  of  their  resi- 
dence there,  the  honors  they  have  taken,  and  the 
extent  of  any  special  training  they  had  received.  It 
describes  also  the  athletic  triumphs  of  those  candi- 
dates. 

Since  the  maximum  age  for  the  examination  was 
increased  to  twenty-three  almost  all  the  successful 
candidates  have  come  from  some  British  University, 
where  they  have  studied  as  a  rule  from  three  to  five 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  39 

years ;  Oxford  usually  sending  about  a  half,  and  Cam- 
bridge about  one-quarter,  while  the  rest  of  them  are 
scattered  through  the  lesser  Universities  of  the 
United  Kingdom,  and  a  very  few,  from  one  to  five 
a  year,  have  been  at  no  British  University  at  all. 
Most  of  the  men  have  taken  their  Bachelor's  degree. 
Almost  all  the  rest  have  passed  one  or ,  more  univer- 
sity examinations,  and  in  fact  by  far  the  greater  part 
have  taken  honors  of  some  sort,  those  near  the  top  of 
the  list  often  high  honors.  Of  course,  no  examination 
is  a  perfect  test  of  knowledge,  and  the  results  are  some- 
times unexpected,  but  as  a  rule  the  rank  of  the  can- 
didates at  the  examination  corresponds,  on  the  whole, 
very  well  with  their  academic  scholarship  at  the 
University. 

Cramming 

There  is  a  common  belief  that  English  competitive 
examinations  can  be  passed  successfully  only  by  the 
aid  of  cramming.  How  far  it  is  true  is  a  most  im- 
portant question.  When  the  limit  of  age  for  the 
examination  was  lower  than  it  is  now  the  habit  of 
preparing  for  the  examination  with  the  aid  of  a  pro- 
fessional crammer  was  extremely  common.  This  was 
a  source  of  much  complaint,  but  for  boys  coming  from 
a  public  school  the  advantage  of  cramming,  from  the 
point  of  view  of  success  at  the  examination,  was  so 
great  that  it  became  a  necessity.^ 

1  The  reports  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  gave  at  one  time 
the  number  of  students  who  had  been  especially  prepared   for   the 


40 


ENGLAND 


Now,  while  the  capacity  to  cram  a  great  deal  of 
information  in  a  short  space  of  time  is  not  altogether 
a  bad  test  of  general  ability,  it  is  a  poor  means  of 
education,  for  it  falsifies  the  true  object  of  study  by 
substituting  the  capability  of  making  a  show  of  knowl- 
edge for  the  more  solid,  but  less  conspicuous,  train- 
ing of  the  faculties.  Hence,  an  examination  which 
provokes  cramming  for  a  short  time  is  not  necessarily 
bad,  but  one  which  leads  to  a  general  and  prolonged 
use  of  the  professional  crammer  is  a  failure  as  a  test, 
and  does  positive  harm  to  the  men  who  prepare  for 
it.  Moreover,  if  conducted  by  crammers  in  London, 
as  is  commonly  the  case,  it  deprives  the  student  of 
that  constant  companionship  and  intercourse  with 
other  young  men  in  scholarly  surroundings,  which 
is  one  of  the  greatest  advantages  of  a  University, 
and  one  of  the  objects  which  the  change  in  the  limit 
of  age  for  the  examination  was  intended  to  secure. 
Since  that  change  cramming  has  in  fact  decidedly 
diminished.  About  one-eighth  of  the  candidates  now 
spend  a  year  or  more  with  a  crammer,  a  somewhat 

examination  after  leaving  school,  although  they  did  not  give  the 
length  of  the  preparation.  From  the  reports  which  I  have  at  hand 
before  1892,  I  take  the  following  statistics:  — 


Successful 

Candidates   specially 

prepared. 


Total. 


Unsuccessful 

Candidates   specially 

prepared. 


Total. 


1887 
1889 
1890 


32  out  of 

31  out  of 

32  out  of 


43 
49 
45 


92  out  of 
115  out  of 
103  out  of 


156 

184 

i6o 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  4I 

larger  proportion  never  go  near  him  at  all,  while  the 
rest  —  and  their  number  seems  to  be  increasing  —  go 
to  him  for  a  few  weeks  or  months,  simply  to  review 
and  brush  up  their  knowledge  just  before  the 
examination. 

This  practice  is  not  in  itself  very  objectionable,  and 
the  professors  at  Oxford  who  abhor  cramming  as 
a  substitute  for  University  life,  have  no  objection 
to  a  small  amount  of  it  as  a  mere  supplement  to 
academic  training. 

Quality  of  the  Candidates 

The  successful  candidates  are  thus,  in  the  main, 
University  men  and  good  scholars.  In  short,  they 
belong  to  the  class  of  men  which  it  was  the  aim  of 
the  system  to  attract.  Apart  from  those  who  enter 
the  Indian  Civil  Service  because  their  fathers  have 
been  there  before  them,  or  who  have  other  hereditary 
ties  with  the  East,  the  candidates  are  largely  men 
obliged  to  earn  their  support  at  once,  or  sons  of 
professional  men  who  want  to  save  their  parents  fur- 
ther expense,  and  have  not  the  capital  to  enable  them 
to  wait  the  length  of  time  necessary  to  achieve  success 
in  a  professional  career  in  England. 

Their  Physical  Condition 

The  competitive  trial  is  followed  by  a  physical 
examination  of  the  successful  men,  to  ascertain 
whether   they  are   fit  for   efficient  service  in  India. 


42  ENGLAND 

This  ought  to  come  first,  because,  as  has  been  pointed 
out,  "  there  is  all  the  difference  in  the  world  between 
rejecting  a  candidate  before  he  has  been  examined 
and  rejecting  a  successful  competitor."  ^  But  al- 
though the  method  of  examining  the  candidates  is  to 
this  extent  defective,  their  physical  condition  appears 
to  be  satisfactory.^  They  are  by  no  means  mere  book- 
worms whose  minds  have  been  trained  at  the  expense 
of  their  bodies ;  the  general  habit  of  athletics  at  the 
present  day  has  prevented  that,  and  a  few  of  them 
each  year  are  to  be  found  even  on  the  University 
crews  or  teams.  In  1895,  indeed,  there  appears 
among  them  the  extraordinary  phenomenon  of  a  man 
who  was  both  Senior  Wrangler  and  a  member  of  the 
Cambridge  University  Crew. 

Natives  of  India  at  the  Competition 

One  of  the  objects  of  raising  the  limit  of  age  for 
the  examination  was  to  give  to  the  natives  of  India 
a  better  chance  to  prepare  for  it  with  success ;  and 
it  will  be  remembered  that  the  change  was  both 
favored  and  opposed,  on  this  ground.  But  neither 
hopes  nor  fears  seem  to  have  been  justified.  Before 
the  change  an  occasional  native  succeeded  in  pass- 
ing, and  in  1890  there  were  four  of  them  who  did  so. 
Now  they  average  about  four  or  five  a  year.     The 

1  Minute  by  Lord  Northbrook,  Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446,  p.  227. 

2  See  the  Report  of  Sir  William  Gull,  Bart.,  M.D.,  Id.,  p.  36.  This 
is  also  the  general  opinion  at  the  present  clay.  See  the  discussion 
of  the  successful  candidates  in  the  Oxford  Magazine  each  year- 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF   INDIA  43 

fact  is  that  while  the  increased  age  gives  the  native 
a  better  opportunity  to  come  to  England  for  his  edu- 
cation, it  is  also  true  that  the  Asiatic  develops  young, 
and  the  older  the  age  of  competition,  the  less  his 
chance  of  success  against  the  Englishman. 

Subsequent  Training  of  the  Candidates 

The  successful  candidates  at  the  examination  who 
have  been  assigned  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service  are 
kept  in  England  for  one  year  of  probationary  study.^ 
Their  general  education  is  supposed  by  this  time  to 
be  finished,  and  their  attention  is  devoted  entirely 
to  subjects  which  are  expected  to  be  of  practical  use 
to  them  in  their  work  in  India.  The  amount  of  such 
special  training  that  should  be  required  has  been  a 
good  deal  discussed,  and,  according  as  more  or  less 
of  it  was  prescribed,  the  selected  candidates  have 
been  retained  in  England  for  one  year  or  two.  The 
views  of  the  Indian  Civil  Servants  as  printed  in  the 
Report  on  the  Selection  and  Training  of  Candidates 
for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  in  1876,  seem  to  show 
that  their  general  opinion  is  against  any  very  long 
period  of  probation  in  England.  They  appear  in- 
clined to  think  that  while  the  general  principles  of 
jurisprudence  and  the  classical  languages  of  the 
East  are  better  taught  in  Europe,  the  technicalities 

^  See  Sec.  9  et  seq.  of  the  Regulations,  in  Appendix  B  to  this  chap- 
ter. A  more  minute  specification  of  the  requirements  for  the  exami- 
nation, of  the  books  to  be  studied,  etc.,  will  be  found  at  the  end  of 
the  Annual  Report  of  the  Civil  Service  Commission  on  the  Examina- 
tion for  the  Civil  Service  of  India. 


44  ENGLAND 

of  Indian  law,  the  details  of  administration,  and 
even  the  vernacular  languages,  can  be  learned  rather 
better  in  India  than  in  England.^  At  the  present 
time,  the  period  of  probation  is  one  year,  and  the 
subjects  studied,  with  the  maximum  marks  assigned 
to  them,  are  as  follows :  — 

Comftilsory 

Marks 

1.  The  Indian  Penal  Code  and  Criminal  Procedure 
Code 500 

2.  The  principal   Vernacular  Language  of  the  Prov- 
ince to  which  the  Candidate  is  assigned     ....       400 

3.  The  Indian  Evidence  Act  and  the  Indian  Contract 

Act 500 

Optional 

(Not  more  than  two  of  the  following  subjects,  of  which  one  must  be 
either  the  Code  of  Civil  Procedure  or  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  Law. 
Candidates  offering  one  subject  only  are  restricted  to  a  choice  between  the 
two  Law  subjects  specified.) 


I .   The  Code  of  Civil  Procedure 


400 


2.  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  Law         ....  450 

3.  Sanskrit  2 400 

4.  Arabic^ 400 

5.  Persian 400 

6.  History  of  British  India 350 

7.  Chinese  (for  Candidates  assigned  to  the  Province  of 
Burma  only) 400 

At  the  end  of  the  first  year  the  so-called  final 
examination  is  held  upon  these  subjects.  This  is 
only  a  pass  examination ;  that  is,  a  candidate  who 
can  pass  it  creditably  is  entitled  to  be  appointed  to 

1  Pari.  Papers,  c.  1446.     Cf.  pp.  53,  229. 

*  These  subjects  may  not  be  offered  by  any  Candidate  who  has  offered 
them  at  the  open  competition. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  45 

the  Indian  Civil  Service  whether  he  does  better  than 
other  candidates  or  not.  It  is  competitive  only  to  the 
extent  that  his  initial  rank  in  the  service  is  deter- 
mined one-half  by  his  rank  in  this  final  examination, 
and  one-half  by  his  rank  in  the  earlier  competitive 
examination. 

The  candidates  are  also  examined  in  riding,  and  if 
qualified  are  credited  according  to  their  proficiency 
with  one  hundred  or  two  hundred  marks,  which  are 
added  to  their  marks  in  the  final  examination.  For 
this  purpose  they  are  put  to  a  test  from  time  to 
time,  by  a  military  officer,  in  saddling  and  bridling, 
mounting  and  dismounting,  trotting  without  reins  or 
stirrups,  cantering  and  jumping,  and  the  ability  to 
perform  journeys  on  horseback. 

Although  the  candidate's  general  education  is  sup- 
posed to  be  finished  when  he  has  passed  the  competi- 
tive examination,  and  he  is  now  devoting  himself  to 
the  special  preparation  for  his  career,  it  is  deemed 
better  that  he  should  spend  his  time  at  a  University, 
than  study  by  himself.  He  is  indeed  perfectly 
free  to  do  his  studying  and  pass  his  year  of  proba- 
tion wherever  he  pleases ;  but  an  allowance  of  .;^ioo 
is  given  to  all  candidates  who  spend  their  time  of 
probation  at  one  of  the  British  Universities  or  col- 
leges, approved  by  the  Secretary  of  State.  Oxford 
and  Cambridge  have  made  special  efforts  to  furnish 
the  necessary  instruction.  They  have  instituted  a 
Delegation  at  Oxford  for  superintending  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  selected  candidates,  and  a  Syndicate  at 


46  ENGLAND 

Cambridge  for  the  same  purpose.  Both  Universities 
maintain  teaching  in  the  various  vernaculars  of  India, 
as  well  as  in  Arabic,  Sanskrit,  Indian  history,  and 
Indian  law.^  So  well  have  they  succeeded  that 
they  have  attracted  almost  all  the  selected  candidates 
to  their  walls.  Their  work  is  assisted  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  State,  who  contributes  to  the  expense  of 
educating  candidates  at  such  Universities  as  make 
adequate  provision  for  their  instruction,  and  whose 
grants  to  Oxford  and  Cambridge  for  this  purpose  are 
j^500  a  year. 

The  allowance  of  jCioo  is  paid  to  the  candidate 
only  after  he  has  successfully  passed  his  final  exami- 
nation ;  but,  in  fact,  a  failure  to  do  so  is  rare.  As  the 
examination  is  not  competitive,  the  successful  candi- 
date has  little  selfish  incentive  to  hard  work,  the 
strongest  motive  being  that  of  outranking  some 
Hindu  who  has  also  been  selected.  He  has  indeed 
been  studying  fiercely  for  the  last  two  or  three  years, 
and  is  apt  to  take  life  somewhat  easier  than  before. 
Still,  these  are  men  who  have  been  in  the  habit  of 
reading  hard,  and  they  do,  on  the  whole,  faithful 
work. 

The  young  Civilian  is  not,  of  course,  ready  for 
active  duties  on  his  arrival  in  India,  He  has  still  his 
apprenticeship  to  serve.  He  must  have  some  experi- 
ence of  the  people  and  the  traditions  of  adminis- 
tration before  he  can  hold  even  one  of   the  minor 

1  The  Indian  Institute  at  Oxford  is  a  separate  affair.  It  is  merely 
a  Library  and  Museum. 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA  47 

posts,  and  it  is  generally  assumed  that  he  is  merely 
in  training  for  the  first  two  years  after  his  arrival.* 

Summary  of  the  History 

The  English  system  of  selecting  and  training  offi- 
cials for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  is  the  result  of  a 
long  experience  and  many  experiments.  It  started 
with  the  arbitrary  nomination,  by  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company,  of  writers,  who  were  trained 
first  in  the  practical  affairs  of  a  great  commercial 
company,  and  later  in  a  college  specially  established 
at  Haileybury  for  the  purpose.  The  time  came  when 
this  privilege  of  the  Directors  of  the  Company  was 
an  anachronism,  and  could  last  no  longer.  Its  fall 
was  followed  by  the  report  of  Macaulay's  Commis- 
sion, which  is  the  basis  of  the  present  system,  and 
rests  upon  the  principle  of  taking  by  competitive 
examination  men  of  high  general  education,  who 
have,  as  a  rule,  had  the  advantage  not  only  of  the 
training  of  the  mind,  but  also  of  the  formation  of  the 
character,  that  results  from  English  University  life. 
Successful  competitors  are  then  given  a  special  train- 
ing in  Oriental  matters  for  the  brief  period  of  one 
year  before  being  sent  to  India  to  learn  their  duties 
upon  the  spot.  Had  this  system  remained  unchanged 
since  the  time  of  Macaulay's  report,  it  might  be  sup- 
posed that  its  retention  was  due  to  habit,  and  not  to 
any  convincing  evidence  of  its  value;  but  this  has 

^  Cf.  Memorandam  in  a  letter  from  the  Government  of  India,  Pari. 
Papen,  1894,  c.  7378,  p.  72. 


48  ENGLAND 

not  been  the  case.  Owing  to  a  desire  to  give  the 
selected  candidates  a  greater  amount  of  special  train- 
ing in  England,  and  at  the  same  time  to  get  them 
out  to  India  younger,  the  limits  of  age  for  the  exami- 
nation were  reduced  until  few  of  the  men  had  any 
considerable  University  life.  Ten  years  later  the 
whole  plan  was  essentially  modified  by  Lord  Salis- 
bury, who  reduced  the  age  still  further  to  the  time 
when  men  go  to  the  University  instead  of  the  age  when 
they  leave  it,  and  provided  that  the  candidates,  after 
their  selection,  should  have,  in  addition  to  their  special 
training,  a  certain  amount  of  opportunity,  at  least,  for 
completing  their  general  education.  Thus  a  plan  in 
many  respects  precisely  the  reverse  of  that  urged  by 
Macaulay  was  tried ;  but  it  was  not  a  success,  and  the 
Government  returned  again  to  the  system  he  had 
originally  proposed.  English  experience  in  India 
seems,  therefore,  to  have  resulted  in  two  conclusions  : 
first,  that  a  high  general  education,  and  best  of  all 
a  University  education,  is  very  important ;  and 
second,  that  a  great  amount  of  special  training  before 
departure  is  neither  necessary  nor  advisable. 

Results  of  the  System 

The*  present  method  of  recruiting  members  of  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  has  certainly  produced  a  corps 
of  administrators  whose  education,  ability,  and  char- 
acter stand  high.  The  number  of  men  who  have 
proved  deficient  in  the  required  intellectual  and  moral 


CIVIL  SERVICE  OF   INDIA  49 

qualities  appears  to  be  very  small.  It  is  commonly 
said,  indeed,  that  the  competitive  system  has  resulted 
in  less  failures,  but  that  it  has  produced  less  giants 
than  the  old  system  of  arbitrary  selection  by  the  East 
India  Company.  This  is,  no  doubt,  true,  but  it  must 
be  remembered  that  giants  are  no  longer  as  much 
needed  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service  as  they  were  in 
the  last  century.  In  those  days  the  ruler  of  a  prov- 
ince might  be  unable  to  communicate  with  Calcutta 
for  weeks  together,  even  at  a  time  of  profound  peace, 
whereas  he  is  now  in  constant  telegraphic  connection 
with  the  Viceroy.  Hence  there  is  more  demand  for 
good  administrators,  and  less  need  of  bold  rulers, 
than  formerly.  It  must  be  remembered  also  that  the 
service  to  which  the  competitive  system  leads  does 
not,  and  ought  not,  to  include  the  heads  of  the  State, 
and  it  is  in  them  rather  than  in  their  subordinates 
that  gigantic  qualities  are  required.  As  an  illustra- 
tion of  this  objection  to  the  competitive  system  it  is 
sometimes  said  that  Clive,  or  some  other  great  Indian 
hero,  could  not  have  entered  the  service  in  that  way. 
But  criticism  of  this  kind  is  really  of  little  value.  To 
say  that  Clive  in  the  eighteenth  century  could  not 
have  passed  a  nineteenth  century  competitive  exami- 
nation means  nothing.  Whether,  if  he  had  been  born 
in  the  second  half  of  the  nineteenth  century,  he 
would  have  been  unable  to  pass  the  examination  is 
an  entirely  different  question.  He  followed  what 
was  in  his  day  the  path  to  success,  and  it  is  by  no 
means  improbable  that  a  man  of  genius  like  Clive 


50  ENGLAND 

would  find  and  follow  the  path  to  success,  whatever 
that  path  in  his  day  might  be. 

There  is  a  vast  deal  of  truth  in  the  remark  of  one 
of  the  Indian  Officials  :  — 

"By  a  not  uncommon  error,  people  who  object  to  the 
competitive  system,  and  who  are  not  aware  of  the  neces- 
sity for  it  and  of  the  mode  in  which  it  really  works,  attach 
to  it  disadvantages  which  might  have  been  expected,  but 
which  experience  shows  do  not  really  attend  it."  ^ 

OFFICES    INCLUDED    IN    THE    INDIAN    CIVIL    SERVICE 

Any  description  of  the  method  of  selecting  colo- 
nial civil  servants  would  be  incomplete  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  class  of  offices  to  which  that 
selection  leads.  The  system  already  described  is 
the  means  of  entrance  to  the  general  administrative 
and  judicial  service  of  India;  for  although  the  func- 
tions of  administrator  and  judge  are  separated  after 
the  lower  grades  are  passed,  and  a  Civilian  must  then 
elect  which  career  he  will  follow,  the  two  classes  of 
official^  are  recruited  together,  and  never  cease  to 
belong  to  the  same  civil  service.  Besides  this  there 
are  also  special  services  for  engineering,  forestry, 
police,  education,  etc.,  which  are  organized  and  re- 
cruited quite  separately,  and  which  will  be  referred 
to  again  hereafter. 

Even  in  the  case  of  the  general  administrative  and 
judicial  service,  only  a  small  part  of  the  actual  work 

^  A.  H.  Haggard,  in  the  Report  on  Selection  and  Training  of  Can- 
didates, Pari.  Papers,  1876,  c.  1446,  pp.  61-62. 


CIVIL   SERVICE  OF   INDIA  5 1 

is  done  by  the  English  officials  selected  by  the  com- 
petitive examination  in  London,  for  it  is  the  impor- 
tant posts  alone,  those  which  require  the  exercise  of 
discretion  in  a  high  degree,  which  are  filled  by  the 
men  appointed  in  this  way.  The  great  mass  of 
details  are  carried  on,  and  the  vast  majority  of  the 
subordinate  positions  under  the  Government  are  held, 
by  native  officials  recruited  directly  in  India.  In 
short,  only  the  superior  executive  and  judicial  ser- 
vice is  now  in  the  hands  of  English  officials,  while 
the  intermediate  and  lower  branches  of  that  service 
are  manned  almost  exclusively  by  natives  of  India. 
In  order  to  understand  this  fully  it  is  necessary  to 
review  the  history  of  the  subject. 

History  of  the  Covenanted  Civil  Service 

The  regular  officials  of  the  East  India  Company, 
appointed  in  England,  were  required  on  joining  the 
service  to  enter  into  a  covenant  with  the  Company 
binding  them  to  perform  their  duties  and  observe 
the  regulations.  Hence  these  officers  were  called 
Covenanted  Civilians,  to  distinguish  them,  both  from 
subordinate  servants  appointed  in  India,  and  from 
agents  for  special  purposes,  neither  of  whom  signed 
any  such  covenants,  and  who  were  collectively  known 
as  the  uncovenanted  service.  A  sharp  contrast  was 
made  between  the  two  services,  by  the  act  of  1793 
(33  Geo.  III.,  c.  52,  sec.  57),  which  provided  that 
all  vacancies  in  the  offices  in  the  civil  line  of  the 


52  ENGLAND 

Company's  service  in  India,  under  the  degree  of 
Counsellor,  should  be  filled  up  from  amongst  the 
civil  servants  of  the  Company.  This  act  was,  of 
course,  intended  to  apply  only  to  the  covenanted 
positions,  but  it  did  not  draw  the  line  between  the 
two  classes  of  positions,  or  specify  in  which  class 
every  office  fell.  Moreover,  it  was  impossible  to 
obey  it  strictly,  and  uncovenanted  persons  were 
appointed  from  time  to  time  to  what  were  univer- 
sally regarded  as  covenanted  posts.  This  state  of 
things  lasted  until  1861,  when  a  statute  (24-25  Vic, 
c.  54)  confirmed  all  such  appointments  previously 
made,  and  fixed  by  a  schedule  annexed  to  the  act 
the  offices  which  should  be  exclusively  reserved  in 
future  for  Covenanted  Civilians.  Except  for  certain 
positions  in  the  customs,  salt  and  opium  departments, 
all  the  offices  in  the  schedule  were  connected  with 
the  general  administration,  or  with  the  judiciary,  and 
they  extended  from  the  Secretaries  of  the  Civil  Gov- 
ernments of  India,  to  Assistant  Collectors  and  Assis- 
tant Magistrates  in  the  districts.^  All  these  offices 
were  thereafter  to  be  strictly  reserved  for  the  Cove- 

1  By  various  special  acts,  one-third,  at  least,  of  the  judges  of  the 
High  Courts  must  be  members  of  the  Civil  Service  of  India,  while  the 
Lieutenant  Governors,  three  of  the  ordinary  members  of  the  Governor 
General's  Council,  and  all  the  ordinary  members  of  the  councils  of  the 
Governors  of  Madras  and  Bombay,  must  have  been  for  a  certain  num- 
ber of  years  in  the  service  of  the  Crown  in  India,  which  means,  of 
course,  that  in  most  cases  they  must  be  Covenanted  Civilians.  Cf. 
Ilbert,  "The  Government  of  India,"  pp.  t8o,  192,  193,  241.  The 
officer  corresponding  to  the  Collector  Magistrate  is  styled  in  non- 
Regulation  Provinces  "Assistant  Commissioner." 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  53 

nanted  Civilians,  save  that  a  person  who  had  resided 
at  least  seven  years  in  India  might,  under  exceptional 
circumstances,  be  provisionally  appointed  to  one  of 
them,  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of 
State,  —  a  power  which  has,  in  fact,  scarcely  been 
used  at  all.^  The  schedule  annexed  to  the  Act 
was  limited  almost  entirely  to  offices  in  the  so-called 
Regulation  Provinces;  that  is,  Bengal,  Madras,  Bom- 
bay, and  the  Northwest  Provinces  with  Oudh.  But 
although  the  provisions  of  the  Act  in  regard  to  the 
scheduled  offices  have  never  been  extended  by  statute 
to  the  non-Regulation  Provinces  they  have  been  vir- 
tually so  extended  by  Lord  Salisbury's  despatch  of 
July  13,  1876,  They  are  now  applied  there  nearly 
as  strictly  as  in  the  Regulation  Provinces;  except 
that  in  certain  districts  of  the  frontier  one-quarter 
of  the  posts  are  in  accordance  with  the  despatch 
given  to  Military  Officers,  and  that  in  Burma  it  has 
been  impossible  as  yet  to  obtain  a  sufficient  quantity 
of  Covenanted  Civilians  who  are  familiar  with  the 
country,  and  hence  a  large  number  of  uncovenanted 
Englishmen,  from  the  army,  from  other  services  and 
from  private  life,  have  been  appointed.  With  these 
exceptions  the  distinction  between  the  Regulation 
and  non-Regulation  Provinces,  so  far  as  it  affects 
the  civil  service,  has  disappeared. 

1  Report  of  Public  Service  Com.,  1886-1887,  Pari.  Papers,  1888, 
c.  5327,  p.  18. 


54  ENGLAND 

Efforts  to  employ  more  Natives  in  the  Service 

There  had  been  for  some  time  a  desire  to  employ 
natives  in  the  higher  and  more  responsible  offices  of 
the  country,  instead  of,  as  heretofore,  solely  in  the 
lower  and  less  responsible  ones.^  With  this  object 
an  act  was  passed  in  1870  (33  Vic,  c.  3,  sec.  6),  pro- 
viding that,  subject  to  such  rules  as  might  be  made 
from  time  to  time  by  the  Indian  Government  with 
the  sanction  of  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  authorities 
in  India  should  be  at  liberty  to  appoint  a  native  of 
India  to  any  office  although  he  had  not  been  ad- 
mitted to  the  covenanted  civil  service.  Several  at- 
tempts to  devise  rules  to  carry  the  statute  into  effect 
were  made,  but  none  of  the  earlier  experiments  were 
successful.^  Under  the  rules  made  in  1879,  on  the 
other  hand,  nearly  one-sixth  of  the  officers  recruited 
to  fill  covenanted  posts  were  Statutory  Civilians,  as 
the  officials  appointed  under  this  statute  were  called. 
But  the  men  selected  did  not  prove  satisfactory  —  a 
result  attributed  to  their  lack  of  previous  administra- 
tive experience,  and  to  the  fact  that  they  were  mere 

1  As  early  as  1833,  the  Statute  3  and  4  Will.  IV.,  c.  85,  sec.  87,  pro- 
vided that  no  Native  "shall,  by  reason  only  of  his  Religion,  Place  of 
Birth,  Descent,  Colour,  or  any  of  them,  be  disabled  from  holding  any 
Place,  Office,  or  Employment  under  the  said  Company";  and  the 
Queen's  Proclamation  of  November  i,  1858,  made  at  the  time  when 
the  government  of  India  passed  from  the  Company  to  the  Crown, 
declared  that,  so  far  as  may  be.  Her  subjects,  of  whatever  race  or  creed, 
should  be  freely  and  impartially  admitted  to  Her  service. 

2  Papers  relating  to  Indian  Civil  Service,  1894,  c.  7378,  pp.  14 
et  seq.,  78  et  seq. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  55 

isolated  officials  in  a  service  recruited  on  quite  a 
different  basis.^  Finally  the  Public  Service  Commis- 
sion of  1886  was  appointed  to  investigate  and  to 
report  upon  the  matter.  After  collecting  a  vast 
amount  of  evidence  the  Commission  reported  a  plan 
for  the  formation  of  a  new  Provincial  Service  to  be 
filled  in  the  main  by  natives  of  India.  It  was  to 
comprise  a  number  of  the  higher  posts  in  the  un- 
covenanted  service,  and  in  addition  to  them  about 
one-sixth  of  the  posts  reserved  by  the  schedule  for 
Covenanted  Civilians.  The  Provincial  Service  was 
to  be  recruited  separately  in  each  of  the  provinces, 
and  below  it  was  to  stand  a  Subordinate  Service  con- 
taining the  minor  uncovenanted  offices.  The  plan 
was  adopted  with  some  modifications  in  detail  and 
was  put  into  operation  by  resolutions  of  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  in  1892-1893.^  At  the  same  time  the 
name  of  Covenanted  Service  was  dropped  altogether, 
and  replaced  by  that  of  Civil  Service  of  India, 

While  the  higher  offices  were  thus  thrown  open  to 
natives  to  some  extent,  the  lower  offices  in  the 
general  administrative  and  the  judicial  service  were 
reserved  for  them  more  completely  than  before.     In 

1  Report  of  the  Public  Service  Com.  1886-1887,  Pari.  Papers 
1888,  c.  5327,  pp.  50,  51,  53. 

2  For  a  description  of  the  Provincial  Service  as  actually  established, 
see  Papers  relating  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  1894,  c.  7378,  pp.  82- 
87;  and  for  copies  of  the  resolutions  of  April  22,  1892,  and  January 
7,  1893,  by  which  it  was  established,  see  Id.,  pp.  96-101.  The  plan 
has  not  yet  been  put  into  operation  in  Burma,  owing  to  the  scarcity 
of  competitant  natives,  nor  fully  in  Assam,  owing  to  the  large  number 
of  European  residents  there. 


56  ENGLAND 

1879  orders  were  issued  by  the  Government  of  India, 
and  by  the  Secretary  of  State,  forbidding,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  the  appointment  to  such  offices  of  any 
one  but  a  native  of  India,  without  the  previous  sanc- 
tion of  the  Governor  General  in  the  case  of  Bengal, 
and  of  the  Secretary  of  State  in  the  case  of  Madras 
and  Bombay.^  These  orders  have  been  so  effectual 
that,  apart  from  Burma,  where  the  backward  condi- 
tion of  education  has  made  it  difficult  to  find  natives 
properly  qualified  even  for  the  lower  offices,  the  total 
number  of  European  appointments  sanctioned  by 
the  Governor  General  from  1871  to  1893  was  only 
fourteen.*'^ 

Number  of  Europeans  in  the  Several  Services 

For  the  general  administrative  and  judicial  work 
of  India  there  are,  therefore,  three  separate  services. 
The  Civil  Service  of  India,  the  successor  of  the  old 
Covenanted  Service,  is  essentially  a  service  of  Eng- 
lishmen, in  spite  of  the  Statutory  Civilians  ap- 
pointed in  former  times,  and  of  a  few  natives  who 
have  been  successful  at  the  competitive  examination 
in  England.  But  its  numbers  are  small.  In  the  lan- 
guage of  the  Commission  of  1896  it  has  been  reduced 
to  a  corps  d'Hite  by  taking  from  it,  and  putting  into 
the  new  Provincial  Service,  nearly  100  posts.  The 
total   number   of    Englishmen   on   the    lists   of    the 

1  For  copies  of  these  orders,  see  Papers  relating  to  the  Indian  Civil 
Service,  1894,  c.  7378,  pp.  102-104. 

^  Id.,  pp.  88-89.  This  does  not  include  Madras  and  Bombay,  where 
the  sanction  of  the  Secretary  of  State  is  required. 


CIVIL  SERVICE   OF   INDIA  S7 

Indian  Civil  Service  on  July  i,  1893,  was  1096,  of 
whom  898  were  Covenanted  Civilians,  104  Military 
Officers,  and  62  Uncovenanted  Civilians ;  of  the  898, 
moreover,  102  were  merely  men  in  training,  not  yet 
fit  to  be  given  responsible  positions,  and  there  are 
always  a  considerable  number  absent  on  leave. 
The  general  government  of  India  is  therefore  carried 
on  by  about  1000  Englishmen,  and  of  these  more 
than  four-fifths  are  engaged  in  administrative  and 
judicial  work  in  the  districts,  each  of  them  having 
charge  on  the  average  of  an  area  of  1290  square 
miles,  with  a  population  of  297,501.^ 

The  Provincial  and  Subordinate  Services  are  not 
only  much  larger  than  the  Civil  Service  of  India,  but 
are  increasing  in  numbers  much  more  rapidly.  On 
July  I,  1893,  there  were  1827  officials  in  the  Provin- 
cial Civil  Service,  and  1908  in  the  Subordinate  Civil 
Service,  so  that  the  two  services  together  outnum- 
bered the  Civil  Service  of  India  nearly  four  to  one.^ 
These  services  are  composed  almost  exclusively  of 
natives,  and  in  fact  a  table  prepared  by  the  Public 
Service  Commission  of  1886  shows  that  out  of  the 
2588  officials  then  on  the  rolls  only  104  were  Euro- 
peans or  Eurasians  domiciled  in  India  at  the  time 
of  their  appointment,  and  only  35  were  Europeans 
or  Eurasians  not  so  domiciled.^     On  account  of  the 

^  Papers  relating  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  1894,  c.  7378;  tables 
at  pp.  95-96. 

2  M,  pp.  72-73. 

'  Pari.  Papers,  1888,  c.  5327,  pp.  28-30.  This  table  does  not  in- 
clude Burma, 


58  ENGLAND 

operation  of  the  orders  of  1879,  even  this  small  pro- 
portion of  Europeans  must  diminish  rapidly. 

As  compared  with  the  Continental  nations  the 
Enghsh  have  adopted  the  principle  of  having  few 
European  colonial  officials,  but  striving  by  the  nature 
of  the  competitive  examination  at  entrance,  and  by 
the  payment  of  very  high  salaries  and  large  pensions, 
to  recruit  them  from  men  of  the  best  calibre  available. 
This  has  been  especially  the  case  in  India,  where  the 
high  native  civilization  has  rendered  it  possible  to 
make  an  even  larger  use  of  native  officials  than  in 
the  other  British  colonies  in  Asia. 


METHOD    OF    RECRUITING    NATIVE    OFFICIALS 

It  has  frequently  been  urged  that  the  holding  of 
the  Civil  Service  examination  in  England  alone  is  a 
hardship  upon  the  natives  of  India,  and  makes  it 
unnecessarily  difficult  for  them  to  compete.  So 
strong  did  this  feeling  become  that  on  June  2,  1893, 
the  House  of  Commons  —  a  body  better  fitted  to 
represent  the  wants  of  Englishmen  at  home  than  to 
deal  wisely  with  the  colonial  problems  —  passed  a 
resolution  in  favor  of  simultaneous  competitive  exam- 
inations in  England  and  in  India.  The  proposition 
had  already  been  considered  and  rejected  by  the  Pub- 
lic Service  Commission  of  1886,  even  three  of  its  six 
native  members  concurring.  The  resolution  of  the 
House  of  Commons  gave  rise  to  a  great  deal  of  cor- 
respondence with  the  Indian  authorities,  central  and 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  $9 

provincial.^  All  the  governments  in  India,  except 
that  of  Madras,  were  of  opinion  that  the  English 
element  in  the  public  service  could  not  safely  be 
reduced  further ;  that  the  natives  were  not  equal  to 
Englishmen  as  administrators ;  and  that  their  substi- 
tution would  not  be  popular  with  the  mass  of  people 
in  India.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  the  excellence  of 
England's  rule  in  India,  and  her  hold  upon  the  natives 
of  the  country,  depends  on  the  administrative  work 
in  the  districts,  rather  than  upon  military  force,  these 
opinions  were  adopted  by  the  Secretary  of  State. 
But  another  reason  for  adopting  them  was  also  given, 
which  applies  to  the  use  of  competitive  examinations 
for  recruiting  natives  for  the  Provincial  and  Subor- 
dinate Services  as  well.  It  is  that  the  system  of 
competitive  examinations  is  not  applicable,  or  only 
partially  appUcable,  to  natives.  In  the  first  place,  the 
chief  danger  against  which  it  is  intended  to  guard, 
that  of  selection  by  patronage,  does  not  exist  in  the 
appointment  of  natives.  In  the  second  place,  it  is 
said  that  such  an  examination  is  not  a  test  of  admin- 
istrative capacity  in  India  as  it  is  in  England,  because 
the  life  in  English  public  schools  and  Universities 
gives  a  training  of  the  character  as  well  as  of  the 
mind,  which  the  native  who  comes  up  for  a  competi- 
tive examination  in  India  does  not  get.  This  would 
appear  to   be  merely  a  circuitous  way  of   stating  a 

^  Papers  relating  to  the  Question  of  Holding  Simultaneous  Exami- 
nations in  India  and  England  for  the  Indian  Civil  Seniice,  1894,  c. 
7378. 


6o  ENGLAND 

truth  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  English  rule  in 
India.  The  capacity  for  government  is  common 
among  Englishmen,  and  may  almost  be  assumed  to 
be  present  in  men  of  education.  Among  natives  of 
India,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  rare ;  while  the 
capacity  for  absorbing  information,  so  as  to  make  a 
good  show,  without  any  strengthening  of  the  mind  or 
will,  is  exceedingly  common.  A  third  reason  and  a 
very  conclusive  one  for  not  making  native  appoint- 
ments by  competitive  examination  is  the  fact  that 
the  system  gives  a  great  advantage  to  one  race  over 
another.  This  was  shown  in  Bengal,  where  competi- 
tive examinations  were  held  for  the  Provincial  Service 
from  1884  to  1893,  and  out  of  sixty-six  candidates  who 
entered  in  that  way,  not  a  single  one  was  a  Moham- 
medan, although  the  Mohammedans  form  one-half 
of  the  population.  The  examination  resulted  in  fact 
almost  entirely  in  the  success  of  the  Bengalis,  who 
are  by  no  means  possessed  of  the  capacity  for  govern- 
ment. The  system  was  therefore  changed  so  that 
only  a  portion  of  the  vacancies  were  filled  by  compe- 
tition.i 

The  methods  of  selecting  members  of  the  Provincial 
Service  vary  from  one  Province  to  another.  A  part 
of  the  places  must  be  filled  everywhere  by  promotion 
from  the  Subordinate  Service,  and  for  the  rest  literary 
tests  are  used  everywhere  as  a  means  of  excluding 
persons  without  a  sufficient  degree  of  education.  But 
up  to  1893,  at  least,  competitive  examinations  as  a 

1  Papers  relating,  etc.,  op.  cit.  1894,  c.  7378,  pp.  93-94. 


CIVIL   SERVICE  OF  INDIA  6l 

means  of  selection  were  considered  inapplicable  ex- 
cept in  Bengal  and  Madras,  where  a  part  of  the 
places  were  filled  in  that  way. 

SPECIAL    SERVICES   IN   INDIA  ^ 

Although  this  work  is  concerned  only  with  the 
selection  of  colonial  officers  for  general  administra- 
tion, and  does  not  deal  with  technical  services  in 
colonies,  yet  a  few  words  about  the  special  services 
of  India  may  not  be  out  of  place,  as  they  throw  light 
upon  the  general  system  of  selection.  These  ser- 
vices depend,  of  course,  for  their  efficiency  on  men 
recruited  in  England,  but  whenever  possible  they 
have  also  a  force  of  natives  in  subordinate  positions. 

The  method  of  selection  varies  in  the  different  ser- 
vices. In  the  Ecclesiastical  and  Educational  Depart- 
ments, for  example,  appointments  are  made  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  without  restriction ;  but  in  most  of 
the  other  services  an  examination  of  a  competitive 
nature  plays  a  part.  In  many  of  them  there  is  more 
than  one  method  of  admission.  Thus,  the  Engineers 
of  the  Public  Works  Department  are  recruited  from 
officers  of  the  Indian  Army,  from  graduates  of  the 
government  civil  engineering  colleges  in  England  and 
in  India,  and  occasionally  from  other  persons.  The 
Traffic  Department,  which  has  charge  of  the  Indian 
State  Railways,  is  recruited  partly  by  transfers  from 
the  Engineers,  partly  by  the  promotion  of  subordi- 

*  A  description  of  the  methods  of  recruiting  the  different  services 
may  be  found  yearly  in  the  India  List 


62  ENGLAND 

nates,  partly  by  direct  competition,  and  partly  from  the 
graduates  of  the  College  at  Cooper's  Hill. 

The  College  at  Cooper's  Hill 

This  institution,  the  Royal  Engineering  College  at 
Cooper's  Hill,^  which  was  opened  in  1872,  supplies 
the  recruits  for  the  Forestry  Department,  most  of 
those  for  the  Telegraph  Department,  many  of  the 
Engineers,  and  some  of  the  officers  of  the  Rail- 
ways and  Accounts  branch  of  the  Public  Works. 

About  fifty  persons,  between  the  ages  of  seventeen 
and  twenty-one,  are  admitted  to  the  engineering  course 
of  the  college  each  year  by  a  pass  examination,  in 
English  composition,  elementary  mathematics,  some 
classical  or  modern  language,  and  history  or  geog- 
raphy.^ This  examination,  which  may  be  dispensed 
with  in  whole  or  in  part  in  the  case  of  a  student  who 
presents  an  appropriate  diploma  is  not  unlike  the 
entrance  examinations  to  our  colleges.  It  is  fol- 
lowed by  a  three-years  course  similar  to  that  pursued 
in  other  institutions  for  teaching  engineering ;  and  it 
is  noteworthy  that  no  subject  is  taught  which  relates 
specially  to  India,^  so  that  a  student  who  goes  through 
the  college,  and  does  not  obtain  an  appointment 
there,  is  well  equipped  to  practise  engineering  in 
England.     He  has  wasted  no  time  in  preparing  him- 

1  The  annnal  Calendar  of  the  college. 

2  In  case  more  men  apply  for  admission  than  the  college  can  hold, 
preference  is  given  according  to  priority  of  application. 

8  Certain  departmental  and  language  examinations  have  to  be 
passed  in  India  as  a  condition  for  subsequent  promotion. 


CIVIL   SERVICE   OF   INDIA  63 

self  for  the  Indian  service,  and  in  fact,  the  regulations 
of  the  college  contemplate  the  presence  of  students 
who  are  not  candidates  for  government  appointments 
at  all.  There  are  periodical  examinations  through- 
out the  course  which  are  completed  by  a  final  exami- 
nation at  graduation.  The  number  of  engineers 
required  for  Indian  service  are  appointed  from  among 
the  graduates,  in  the  order  of  their  rank,  and  the 
examinations  are,  therefore,  in  reality,  competitive 
tests  for  the  selection  of  Indian  Engineers.^ 

The  appointments  from  Cooper's  Hill  to  the  Tele- 
graph Department  are  arranged  in  a  slightly  differ- 
ent manner.  They  are  offered  to  the  students  at  the 
end  of  the  first  year's  course  in  engineering,  in  the 
order  of  their  rank ;  the  men  selected  being  required 
to  go  through  a  second  year  of  special  training  at 
the  college,  and  pass  an  examination  upon  it. 

For  the  Forestry  Department,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  competitive  examination  comes  at  the  time  of  ad- 
mission, and  the  successful  candidates  are  then  ex- 
pected to  go  through  a  course  of  three  years'  study  at 
the  college  with  credit.  The  reason  for  fixing  a  dif- 
ferent point  in  the  college  course  for  making  the 
selections  in  the  various  departments  is  doubtless 
to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  the  education  of  the 
Foresters  might  be  of  little  use  to  them  in  case  they 
failed  to  get  an  Indian  appointment,  so  that  if  the 
competitive   examination   came   at    the   end   of    the 

1  The  men  selected  are  usually  required  to  spend  a  year  in  practical 
training  under  an  engineer  in  England 


64  ENGLAND 

course,  the  unsuccessful  candidates  would  have 
thrown  away  three  years'  work.  The  same  is  prob- 
ably true,  to  some  extent,  of  the  Telegraph  Depart- 
ment ;  while  with  the  Engineers  the  case  is  different, 
and  hence  it  is  an  advantage  to  postpone  the  competi- 
tion until  the  men  are  as  mature  as  possible.  The  com- 
petitive examination  for  the  admission  of  the  students 
in  Forestry  to  Cooper's  Hill  is,  of  course,  much  more 
elementary  than  the  examination  for  the  Indian  Civil 
Service.  It  consists  of  obligatory,  optional,  and  addi- 
tional subjects.  The  obligatory  subjects  are  element- 
ary mathematics,  English  composition,  and  German; 
the  optional  subjects,  any  two  of  which  may  be  taken, 
are  higher  mathematics,  French,  Latin,  Greek,  Eng- 
lish history,  botany,  chemistry,  physics,  and  physi- 
cal geography ;  the  additional  subjects,  which  count 
for  little,  are  free-hand  and  geometrical  drawing. 
There  appear  to  be  a  sufficient  number  of  candidates 
at  these  examinations  to  make  the  test  really  compet- 
itive. At  the  examination  in  1898,  for  example,  there 
were  sixteen  competitors  for  six  places. 

The  same  examination  that  admits  students  to  the 
course  in  Forestry  at  Cooper's  Hill  is  also  used  as 
a  competitive  test  for  the  appointment  of  members  of 
the  Indian  Police  Force;  the  only  difference  being 
that  the  candidates  for  the  Police  Force  may  offer 
French,  instead  of  German,  as  an  obligatory  subject, 
and  that  the  limit  of  age  for  the  candidates;  is  slightly 
different.  Success,  which  depends  also  upon  ability 
to  ride  on  horseback,  leads,  however,  at  once  to  pro- 


EASTERN   CADETS  65 

bational  appointment  in  India  instead  of  to  Cooper's 
Hill.  The  number  of  candidates  for  the  Indian  Police 
Force  is  greater  than  for  the  Forestry  Department. 
Thus,  in  1898,  there  were  sixty-one  candidates  for 
thirteen  vacancies.^  In  the  course  of  the  month  pre- 
ceding the  examination  the  candidates  for  both  ser- 
vices are  required  to  appear  before  a  medical  board 
at  the  India  Office,  and  no  one  is  permitted  to  enter 
the  competition  without  a  certificate  from  that  board 
that  he  is  fit  for  active  duty  in  India.  This  is  clearly 
as  it  should  be. 

The  subject  of  India  has  been  dwelt  upon  at  this 
length,  because  the  method  of  selecting  and  training 
the  officials  has  been  more  carefully  tried  there,  and 
has  reached  a  higher  point  of  development  than  in 
any  other  dependency  in  the  world. 

OTHER   BRITISH    COLONIES    IN   THE   EAST 

The  same  general  methods  of  recruiting  officials  that 
prevail  in  India  have  been  adopted  in  the  other  British 
Colonies  in  the  East,  but  owing  to  the  fact  that  these 
colonies  are  much  smaller  than  India,  and  their  staff 
of  officials  much  less  numerous,  the  method  of  select- 
ing and  training  officials  is  not  quite  so  systematic, 
and,  in  fact,  the  services  themselves  are  not  so  highly 
organized.     Competitive  examination,  as  a  method  of 

^  Two  of  the  candidates  offered  themselves  both  for  the  Forestry 
and  Police,  The  examination  papers  for  the  Forestry  Service  and 
Police  Force  are  published  every  year  by  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioners. 

F 


^  ENGLAND 

selection,  has  been  used  in  each  of  these  colonies  for 
a  considerable  length  of  time.  In  Ceylon  it  dates 
from  a  Minute  of  March  3,  1863  ;  in  the  Straits  Set- 
tlements—  the  responsibilities  of  which  have  been 
increased  of  late  years  by  the  addition  of  the  Feder- 
ated Malay  States — it  has  been  employed  ever  since 
they  were  separated  from  India  in  1868;  and  finally 
for  Hong  Kong  it  has  been  long  in  use. 

Examination  for  the  Eastern  Cadets 

Although  the  civil  service  for  each  of  these 
colonies  is  entirely  distinct,  the  selected  candidates 
for  all  of  them  are  collectively  known  as  the  Eastern 
Cadets,  and  it  has  been  the  habit  for  many  years  to 
hold  a  single  examination  in  London  annually  for  all 
of  the  cadetships,  so  far  as  there  are  vacancies  to  be 
filled,  and  then  to  allow  the  successful  candidates,  in 
the  order  of  their  rank  at  the  examination,  to  choose 
the  colony  they  prefer. 

Candidates  for  this  examination  are  required  to 
be  between  the  ages  of  twenty-one  and  twenty-four, 
which  is  not  much  older  than  the  present  limits 
of  age  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service ;  but  the  exam- 
ination formerly  differed  from  the  Indian  one  in 
some  respects  which  deserve  notice. 

In  the  first  place,  there  was  a  preliminary  examina- 
tion which  every  candidate  must  pass  before  he  could 
be  admitted  to  take  part  in  the  competitive  test,  and 
for  which  a  fee  of  ;i^i  was  required.  It  consisted  of 
copying,  writing  from  dictation,  and  elementary  arith- 


EASTERN  CADETS  ^1 

metic,  and  was,  of  course,  intended  to  eliminate  hope- 
less candidates ;  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  it  is  hardly 
conceivable  that  any  one  would  present  himself  for 
the  competitive  examination  who  would  not  have 
been  absolutely  certain  to  have  passed  the  prelimi- 
nary one.  The  competitive  examination,  for  which 
a  fee  oi  £,^  was  required,  was  divided  into  obliga- 
tory and  optional  subjects,  and  was  set  forth  in  the 
regulations  as  follows :  — 

A.    Obligatory 

{a)   Latin. 

(J))  One  of  the  following  languages:  Greek,  French,  Ger- 
man, Italian. 

The  qualifying  test  for  a  and  b  will  be  translation  from  the 
language,  but  marks  will  be  given  for  translation  into  it,  and, 
in  the  case  of  the  modern  languages,  for  colloquial  proficiency. 

if)   English  Composition,  including  Precis  Writing. 

B.    Optional. 

(^)  Pure  Mathematics,  viz.,  Euclid,  I.-IV.,  and  VI. ;  Algebra, 
including  the  Binomial  Theorem ;  Trigonometry,  including  the 
Solution  of  Triangles ;  Analytical  Geometry  (elementary)  and 
Mixed  Mathematics,  including  Statics  and  Dynamics  treated 
without  the  Differential  Calculus. 

{e)  (i)  Modern  Geography  and  (2)  Ancient  and  Modern 
History. 

The  Examination  in  History  will  be  confined  to  certain  periods, 
to  be  prescribed  for  each  examination. 

(/")  The  Elements  of  Constitutional  and  International  Law, 
and  Political  Economy.  > 

{g)   Geology,  Civil  Engineering,  and  Surveying. 

{h)  Any  two  languages  included  under  head  b  which  have 
not  been  taken  up  as  obligatory. 

Every  candidate  must  show  a  competent  knowledge  of  the  obli- 
gatory subjects,  and  may  select  any  two  of  the  optional  subjects. 


68  ENGLAND 

At  first  sight  this  examination  appears  to  differ 
radically  in  principle  from  the  examination  for  the 
Indian  Civil  Service.  The  existence  of  obligatory 
subjects,  and  of  technical  studies  like  civil  engineer- 
ing and  surveying,  seems  to  make  it  less  adapted  for 
University  men  and  more  exposed  to  the  danger  of 
encouraging  cramming ;  but  in  fact  these  differences 
are  more  apparent  than  real.  The  required  subjects 
were  such  as  every  University  man  would  be  familiar 
with ;  while  the  only  optional  subjects  which  would 
not  fall  into  the  regular  curriculum  of  a  University 
were  civil  engineering  and  surveying,  and  the  reports 
of  the  examinations  published  by  the  Civil  Service 
Commissioners  show  that  as  a  matter  of  fact  these 
were  almost  never  offered  by  a  candidate.  The 
precis  writing,  which  appears  to  be  a  very  technical 
matter,  is  really  a  thing  that  every  intelligent  young 
man  must  have  been  able  to  do  creditably  without 
much  coaching.  In  1895,  for  example,  the  last  year 
in  which  this  kind  of  examination  was  used,  the 
candidates  were  required  to  make  a  short  abstract, 
schedule,  or  docket  of  the  several  letters  and  other 
papers  in  a  correspondence  respecting  the  revision 
of  the  treaty  arrangements  between  Great  Britain 
and  Japan,  which  occupied  about  sixteen  pages  in  a 
parliamentary  paper.  They  were  also  required  to 
draw  up  a  memorandum  or  precis,  i.e.  a  brief  and 
clear  statement  of  what  passed,  not  letter  by  letter, 
but  in  the  form  of  a  narrative.  This  is  a  very  good 
test  of  general  intelligence,  and  ought  to  have  pre- 


EASTERN   CADETS  69 

sented  no  difficulties  to  University  men.  Although 
the  examination  did  not  differ  much  in  principle 
from  that  for  admission  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service, 
it  was  far  more  restricted  in  scope.  The  number  of 
subjects  among  which  the  candidates  could  choose 
was  much  more  limited.  Neither  literature  — 
ancient  or  modern,  English  or  foreign  —  was  in- 
cluded, nor  science,  except  in  the  form  of  geology, 
which  could  be  taken  only  in  connection  with  civil 
engineering.  Moreover,  the  examination  did  not 
require  so  thorough  a  knowledge,  and  was  therefore 
not  so  good  a  test.  The  examination  in  mathematics, 
for  example,  did  not  cover  the  calculus ;  and  a  com- 
parison of  the  examination  papers  on  other  subjects 
shows  that  the  questions  were  more  elementary  than 
for  the  Indian  competition. 

The  number  of  vacancies  was  small :  two  being 
the  smallest,  and  eight  the  largest,  that  I  have 
seen.  The  number  of  competitors  was  usually  very 
large  in  proportion,  sometimes  more  than  ten  times 
the  places  to  be  filled.  Thus  in  1886,  there  were 
thirty-one  for  three  places;  in  1890,  fifty-nine  for 
six  places;  in  1891,  forty-nine  for  seven  places;  in 
1892,  thirty-three  for  two  places.  The  last  year, 
1895,  saw  a  falling  off,  there  being  only  twenty-two 
for  eight  vacancies.  No  doubt  the  small  number  of 
places  offered  was  a  disadvantage,  because  the  quan- 
tity of  prizes  to  be  won  is  an  important  element  in 
attracting  the  best  men  to  the  competition ;  and  on 
the  suggestion  of  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners 


70  ENGLAND 

the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  decided  at  the 
end  of  1895  to  amalgamate  the  examination  for  the 
Eastern  Cadets  with  that  for  the  Civil  Service  of 
India  and  the  First  Class  Clerkships  in  the  Home 
Civil  Service.  This  change  came  into  effect  in 
August,  1896.  The  same  examination,  therefore, 
now  leads  to  all  three  careers,  and  subject  to  the 
paramount  interests  of  the  public  service  the  suc- 
cessful candidates  are  given  their  choice  in  the  order 
of  their  rank  at  the  examination.  In  the  same  way 
the  Eastern  Cadets  are  allowed  to  indicate  the 
colony  or  dependency  in  the  East  to  which  they 
would  prefer  to  be  assigned. 

Subsequent  Training  of  the  Eastern  Cadets 

At  one  time  it  was  the  habit  for  the  Eastern  Cadets 
who  were  destined  for  Hong  Kong  to  remain  for  a 
year  of  probation  in  England,  studying  Chinese  and 
acquiring  some  knowledge  of  affairs  in  the  Colonial 
Office.  But  this  has  been  given  up,  and  all  the 
Eastern  Cadets  are  now  sent  out  at  once.  In  short, 
the  Eastern  Cadets  are  selected  on  a  competition 
based  upon  general  education  alone,  and  are  de- 
spatched to  the  East  without  receiving  in  England 
any  special  training  or  instruction  in  their  duties 
whatever.  One  reason  given  for  this  is  that  the 
chief  languages  they  need,  such  as  Singhalese  and 
Tamil  for  Ceylon,  and  the  various  Malay  tongues 
for  the  Straits  Settlements   and  the  Malay  Penin- 


EASTERN   CADETS  7 I 

sula,  are  not  taught  in  England.  Another  is  that 
even  if  a  Cadet  could  study  these  languages  advan- 
tageously in  England,  he  would  not  have  the  benefit 
of  learning,  at  the  same  time,  the  ways  of  the  people 
he  has  to  govern.  Moreover,  the  other  subject  which 
a  Cadet  residing  in  England  would  chiefly  be  set  to 
study,  that  is  law,  is  less  important  for  him  than  for 
the  Indian  Civilian,  because  India  is  not  only  much 
larger  than  the  Eastern  colonies,  but  its  civilization 
and  political  organization  are  far  more  complex. 

When  the  Cadet  arrives  in  the  East,  he  is  sent  to 
China  for  two  years  to  study  Chinese,  if  he  is  des- 
tined for  Hong  Kong,  or  for  work  in  the  Straits 
Settlements  or  the  Malay  Peninsula  which  will  bring 
him  into  close  contact  with  Chinamen.  If  not,  he  is 
sent  to  learn  the  prevalent  native  tongue  in  the  dis- 
trict to  which  he  is  assigned ;  thus  in  the  Straits 
Settlements  he  often  spends  six  months  in  the  office 
of  the  Colonial  Secretary  at  Singapore,  and  eighteen 
months  with  a  district  officer  in  the  country.  He  is 
then  ready  to  be  set  to  work.  In  Ceylon,  moreover, 
a  Cadet  cannot  receive  a  substantive  appointment 
until  he  has  passed,  in  the  colony,  an  examination  in 
law,  in  the  system  of  accounts  employed  in  the  gov- 
ernment offices,  and  in  one  native  language ;  nor  can 
he  be  promoted  before  he  passes  another  examina- 
tion in  law,  accounts,  and  two  native  languages.^ 

1  See  Ceylon  Civil  Service  List,  1896,  pp.  190-192. 


72  ENGLAND 

Positions  reserved  for  Eastern  Cadets 

In  Ceylon  the  organization  of  the  administration, 
and  the  places  reserved  for  the  members  of  the  civil 
service,  are  modelled  upon  the  same  lines  as  those 
in  India.  There  has  also  been  the  same  effort  to 
give  to  natives  a  share  of  the  higher  positions,  by- 
transferring  a  certain  number  of  them  to  a  Lower 
Division  of  the  service,  organized  for  the  purpose.^ 

As  in  the  case  of  the  Provincial  Service  in  Bengal, 
competition  has  been  tried  as  a  means  of  recruiting 
the  Lower  Division  in  Ceylon ;  but  although  that 
division  was  created  in  1891,  the  examinations  had 
not,  up  to  1897,  resulted  in  the  success  of  a  single 
full-blooded  native.^ 

In  the  Straits  Settlements  there  is  no  list  of  posts 
reserved  exclusively  for  members  of  the  service,  yet 
in  practice  all  the  higher  offices  belong  to  it,  except 
those  of  Governor,  Colonial  Secretary,  Attorney 
General,  and,  owing  to  want  of  a  service  large  enough 
to  draw  upon  for  such  places.  Judges  of  the  High 
Court.  In  the  Federated  Malay  States,  on  the  other 
hand,  the  recent  date  at  which  the  protectorate  was 
established  has  made  it  impossible  to  develop  as  yet 
a  completely  self-sufficient  civil  service,  for  it  takes 
some  time  to  create  a  service  of  this  kind,  and  the 
first  officials  must  in  the  nature  of  things  be  taken 

1  See  Ceylon  Civil  Service  List,  1896,  pp.  192-194. 
*  Papers  relating  to  the  Reclassification  of  the  Ceylon  Civil  Service, 
1897,  printed  by  Order  of  His  Excellency  the  Governor,  p.  24.  j 


EASTERN   CADETS  >  73 

from  outside.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  two  of  the  five 
Residents  at  the  Native  Courts  have  been  appointed 
from  the  service,  and  in  the  future  vacancies  will 
undoubtedly  be  filled  in  that  way. 

Throughout  the  Malay  Peninsula  the  lack  of  a  high 
indigenous  civilization  makes  it  necessary  for  white 
officers  to  occupy  the  lesser  posts  which  in  India 
would  be  held  by  natives.  Thus  a  district  officer 
is  a  member  of  the  civil  service  recruited  in  Eng- 
land, and  his  immediate  subordinates  are  the  native 
Headmen  of  the  villages,  who  are  nominally  elected 
by  the  villagers  and  confirmed  by  the  Government, 
although  of  course  it  is  not  difficult  in  practice  to 
guide  the  choice  of  the  people. 

In  the  Federated  Malay  States  the  result  is  much 
the  same,  but  the  form  is  different.  Here  the  white 
officials  in  each  state  consist  of  the  Resident,  with 
a  staff  of  three  or  four  white  assistants,  and  below 
him  a  District  Officer  with  one  or  two  assistants  in 
each  district.  Neither  the  Residents  nor  the  District 
Officers  are  nominally  direct  rulers,  but  in  each  case 
they  are  guides,  philosophers,  and  friends  to  the  cor- 
responding native  chief,  and  in  practice  they  control 
his  actions. 

It  is  a  great  disadvantage  to  the  civil  service  of 
these  colonies  that  each  of  them  is  too  small  by  itself 
to  furnish  sufficient  opportunities  for  a  great  career. 
The  condition  is,  indeed,  rendered  somewhat  better 
by  the  practice  of  occasionally  transferring  a  man 
from  the  service  of  one  colony  to  that  of  another, 


74  .  ENGLAND 

and  it  has  been  proposed  to  render  this  more  system- 
atic, and  to  improve  the  chance  of  promotion  of 
able  men,  by  making  the  services  of  the  Straits  Settle- 
ments, the  Federated  Malay  States,  and  Hong  Kong 
into  one  great  colonial  service  for  the  East.  Such 
a  change  would  render  the  career  more  attractive  to 
young  men  of  talent,  and  this  is,  after  all,  the 
essential  point. 

The  result  of  the  system  of  competitive  examina- 
tion is  much  the  same  for  the  Eastern  colonies  as 
for  India.  It  occasionally  produces  a  mere  student 
who  has  no  administrative  power,  but  such  cases 
appear  to  be  rare,  and  no  one  to-day  would  seriously 
propose  to  give  it  up.  On  the  other  hand,  the  fact 
that  the  English  feel  obliged  to  open  their  examina- 
tions to  all  British  subjects  sometimes  involves  star- 
tling consequences.  Among  the  men,  for  example, 
who  of  late  years  have  obtained  Eastern  Cadetships 
by  means  of  competition  have  been  a  Sikh  from 
India  and  a  Mulatto  from  Barbadoes.  Neither  of 
these  men  can  have  the  same  influence  over  the 
Malays  as  an  Englishman,  and  neither  of  them 
would,  of  course,  have  been  deliberately  selected  for 
the  service. 

BRITISH   COLONIES   ELSEWHERE 

While  the  competitive  system,  either  open  or 
limited,  is  used  in  a  subsidiary  way  for  the  appoint- 
ment to  clerkships,  etc.,  in  some  of  the  other  colo- 
nies, there  is  no  colonial  civil  service   recruited   by 


OTHER  BRITISH  COLONIES  75 

competition  except  in  India  and  the  Eastern  depend- 
encies. The  reasons  for  this  are  easy  to  discover. 
The  Self-Governing  Colonies,  Canada,  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  and  Australasia,  are  of  course  out  of 
the  question.  Except  for  the  Governor,  they  ap- 
point all  their  own  public  servants,  and  with  these 
the  English  Government  has  no  concern.  In  the 
Crown  Colonies  of  the  West  Indies,  Africa,  the 
Mediterranean,  and  the  numerous  islands  scattered 
over  the  globe,  this  is  not  true;  and  no  doubt  the 
system  of  competitive  examination  would  be  adopted 
in  their  case  were  it  not  that  no  one  of  them  alone  is 
large  enough  to  support  a  regularly  recruited  civil 
service,  and  for  one  reason  or  another  it  is  impossi- 
ble to  group  them  together  for  the  purpose.  In  the 
West  Indies,  for  example,  the  inhabitants  of  the 
islands  are  quite  capable  of  holding  the  offices.  It 
would  not  be  right,  or  possible,  to  fill  these  places 
by  competitions  held  in  London,  and  open  to  all 
British  subjects.  But  at  the  same  time  the  West 
Indians  have  not  enough  breadth  of  view  to  be 
useful  outside  their  own  colony.  In  Africa,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  largest  part  of  the  territories 
under  English  control  have  either  been,  like  Egypt, 
military  protectorates,  or  like  Rhodesia  and  the 
country  about  the  Niger,  under  the  management  of 
chartered  companies.  The  rest  of  the  Crown  Colo- 
nies are  too  small  and  too  widely  separated  to 
support  a  service.  The  positions  of  Governor  and 
Colonial  Secretary  in  the  Crown  Colonies  form,  indeed, 


76  ENGLAND 

a  career,  and  a  career  in  which  a  man  who  shows 
capacity  is  promoted  from  one  colony  to  another. 
But  it  is  also  a  career  in  which  the  variety  of  prob- 
lems involved  and  the  tact  required  are  infinite,  and 
hence  it  could  hardly  be  made  into  a  regular  profes- 
sion, with  a  rigid  method  of  admission  and  promotion. 


APPENDIX  A 

Report  on  the  Indian  Civil  Service 

To  the  Right  Honourable  Sir  Charles  Wood,  Bart.,  M.P., 
etc.,  etc.,  etc. 

Sir,  —  We  have  attentively  considered  the  subject  about 
which  you  have  done  us  the  honour  to  consult  us ;  and  we 
now  venture  to  submit  to  you  the  result  of  our  deliberations. 
We  do  not  think  that  we  can  more  conveniently  arrange  the 
suggestions  which  we  wish  to  offer,  than  by  following  the 
order  which  is  observed  in  the  39th  and  40th  clauses  of 
the  India  Act  of  1853. 

The  first  matter  concerning  which  the  Board  of  Control 
is  empowered  by  the  39th  clause  to  make  regulations  is  the 
age  of  the  persons  who  are  to  be  admitted  into  the  college 
at  Haileybury. 

The  present  rule  is,  that  no  person  can  be  admitted  under 
seventeen,  and  that  no  person  can  go  out  to  India  after 
twenty-three.  Every  student  must  pass  four  terms,  that  is 
to  say,  two  years  at  the  college.  Consequently,  none  can 
be  admitted  after  twenty-one. 

It  seems  to  us  that  it  would  be  a  great  improvement  to 
allow  students  to  be  admitted  to  the  college  up  to  the  age 
of  twenty- three,  and  to  fix  twenty-five  as  the  latest  age  at. 
which  they  can  go  out  to  India  in  the  Civil  Service.  It  is 
undoubtedly  desirable  that  the  Civil  Servant  of  the  Com- 
pany should  enter  on  his  duties  while  still  young ;  but  it  is 
also  desirable  that  he  should  have  received  the  best,  the 
most  liberal,  the  most  finished  education  that  his  native 

77 


78  APPENDIX  A 

country  affords.  Such  an  education  has  been  proved  by 
experience  to  be  the  best  preparation  for  every  calling 
which  requires  the  exercise  of  the  higher  powers  of  the 
mind ;  nor  will  it  be  easy  to  show  that  such  preparation  is 
less  desirable  in  the  case  of  a  Civil  Servant  of  the  East 
India  Company  than  in  the  case  of  a  professional  man  who 
remains  in  England,  Indeed,  in  the  case  of  the  Civil  Ser- 
vant of  the  Company  a  good  general  education  is  even 
more  desirable  than  in  the  case  of  the  English  professional 
man ;  for  the  duties  even  of  a  very  young  servant  of  the 
Company  are  more  important  than  those  which  ordinarily 
fall  to  the  lot  of  a  professional  man  in  England.  In  Eng- 
land, too,  a  professional  man  may,  while  engaged  in  active 
business,  continue  to  improve  his  mind  by  means  of  read- 
ing and  of  conversation.  But  the  servant  of  the  Company 
is  often  stationed,  during  a  large  part  of  his  life,  at  a  great 
distance  from  libraries  and  from  European  society,  and  will 
therefore  find  it  peculiarly  difficult  to  supply  by  study  in 
his  mature  years  the  deficiencies  of  his  early  training. 

The  change  which  we  propose  will  have  one  practical 
effect,  to  which  we  attach  much  importance.  We  think  it 
desirable  that  a  considerable  number  of  the  Civil  Servants 
of  the  Company  should  be  men  who  have  taken  the  first 
degree  in  arts  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  At  present  the 
line  is  drawn  as  if  it  had  been  expressly  meant  to  exclude 
bachelors  of  those  Universities.  It  will,  we  believe,  be 
found  that  the  great  majority  of  our  academic  youth  gradu- 
ate too  late  by  a  few  months,  and  only  by  a  few  months,  for 
admission  into  Haileybury. 

We  propose  to  fix  eighteen  as  the  lowest  age  at  which  a 
candidate  can  be  admitted  into  the  college.  We  are  indeed 
of  opinion  that,  except  in  very  rare  and  extraordinary  cases, 
it  is  not  desirable  that  a  lad  should  be  admitted  so  early  as 
eighteen.  But  we  are  convinced  that,  except  in  very  rare 
and  extraordinary  cases,  no  lad  of  eighteen  will  have  any 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN  CIVIL   SERVICE       79 

chance  of  being  admitted.  Hitherto  the  admissions  have 
been  given  by  favour.  They  are  henceforward  to  be 
gained  by  superiority  in  an  intellectual  competition. 
While  they  were  given  by  favour,  they  were  frequently, 
indeed  generally,  given  to  persons  whose  age  was  not 
much  above  the  minimum.  A  director  would  naturally 
wish  his  son  or  nephew  to  be  handsomely  provided  for  at 
nineteen  rather  than  at  twenty-three,  and  to  be  able  to 
return  to  England  with  a  competence  at  forty-four  rather 
than  at  forty-eight.  A  majority  of  the  students  have, 
therefore,  been  admitted  before  they  were  nineteen,  and 
have  gone  out  before  they  were  twenty-one.  But  it  is 
plain  that,  in  any  intellectual  competition,  boys  of  eight- 
een must  be  borne  down  by  men  of  twenty-one  and  twenty- 
two.  We  may,  therefore,  we  believe,  safely  predict  that 
nine-tenths  of  those  who  are  admitted  to  the  college  under 
the  new  system  will  be  older  than  nine-tenths  of  those  who 
quit  it  under  the  present  system.  We  hope  and  believe 
that  among  the  successful  competitors  will , frequently  be 
young  men  who  have  obtained  the  highest  honours  of  Ox- 
ford and  Cambridge.  To  many  such  young  men  a  fellow- 
ship, or  a  tutorship,  which  must  be  held  on  condition  of 
celibacy,  will  appear  less  attractive  than  a  situation  which 
enables  the  person  who  holds  it  to  marry  at  an  early  age. 

The  India  Act  next  empowers  the  Board  of  Control  to 
determine  the  qualifications  of  the  candidates  for  admission 
to  Haileybury.  It  seems  to  us  to  be  proper  that  every  per- 
son who  intends  to  be  a  candidate  should,  at  least  six  weeks 
before  the  examination,  notify  his  intention  to  the  Board 
of  Control,  and  should  at  the  same  time  transmit  a  list  of 
the  subjects  in  which  he  proposes  to  be  examined,  in  order 
that  there  may  be  time  to  provide  a  sufficient  number  of 
examiners  in  each  department.  He  should,  at  the  same 
time,  lay  before  the  Board  testimonials  certifying  that  his 
moral  character  is  good.     Whether  the  testimonials  be  or 


So  APPENDIX   A 

be  not  satisfactory  is  a  point  which  we  conceive  may  safely 
be  left  to  the  determination  of  the  Board. 

The  Board  is  then  authorized  by  the  Act  to  make  regula- 
tions prescribing  the  branches  of  knowledge  in  which  the 
candidates  for  admission  to  Haileybury  shall  be  examined. 
Here  arises  at  once  a  question  of  the  gravest  importance. 
Ought  the  examination  to  be  confined  to  those  branches  of 
knowledge  to  which  it  is  desirable  that  English  gentlemen 
who  mean  to  remain  at  home  should  pay  some  attention?  — 
or  ought  it  to  extend  to  branches  of  knowledge  which  are 
useful  to  a  servant  of  the  East  India  Company,  but  useless, 
or  almost  useless,  to  a  person  whose  life  is  to  be  passed  in 
Europe  ? 

Our  opinion  is,  that  the  examination  ought  to  be  confined 
to  those  branches  of  knowledge  to  which  it  is  desirable  that 
English  gentlemen  who  mean  to  remain  at  home  should  pay 
some  attention. 

It  is  with  much  diffidence  that  we  venture  to  predict  the 
effect  of  the  new  system ;  but  we  think  we  can  hardly  be 
mistaken  in  believing  that  the  introduction  of  that  system 
will  be  an  event  scarcely  less  important  to  this  country  than 
to  India.  The  educated  youth  of  the  United  Kingdom  are 
henceforth  to  be  invited  to  engage  in  a  competition  in 
which  about  forty  prizes  will,  on  an  average,  be  gained 
every  year.  Every  one  of  these  prizes  is  nothing  less  than 
an  honourable  social  position,  and  a  comfortable  indepen- 
dence for  life.  It  is  difficult  to  estimate  the  effect  which 
the  prospect  of  prizes  so  numerous  and  so  attractive  will 
produce.  We  are,  however,  familiar  with  some  facts  which 
may  assist  our  conjectures.  At  Trinity  College,  the  largest 
and  wealthiest  of  the  colleges  of  Cambridge,  about  four 
fellowships  are  given  annually  by  competition.  These  fel- 
lowships can  be  held  only  on  condition  of  celibacy,  and  the 
income  derived  from  them  is  a  very  moderate  one  for  a 
single   man.      It  is  notorious  that  the  examinations  for 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE       8 1 

Trinity  fellowships  have,  directly  and  indirectly,  done  much 
to  give  a  direction  to  the  studies  of  Cambridge  and  of  all 
the  numerous  schools  which  are  the  feeders  of  Cambridge. 
What,  then,  is  likely  to  be  the  effect  of  a  competition  for 
prizes  which  will  be  ten  times  as  numerous  as  the  Trinity 
fellowships,  and  of  which  each  will  be  more  valuable  than 
a  Trinity  fellowship?  We  are  inclined  to  think  that  the 
examinations  for  situations  in  the  Civil  Service  of  the  East 
India  Company  will  produce  an  effect  which  will  be  felt  in 
every  seat  of  learning  throughout  the  realm,  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  at  the  University  of  London  and  the  Uni- 
versity of  Durham,  at  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  at  Dublin, 
at  Cork,  and  at  Belfast.  The  number  of  candidates  will 
doubtless  be  much  greater  than  the  number  of  vacancies.  It 
will  not  surprise  us  if  the  ordinary  number  examined  should 
be  three  or  four  hundred.  The  great  majority,  and  among 
them  many  young  men  of  excellent  abilities  and  laudable 
industry,  must  be  unsuccessful.  If,  therefore,  branches  of 
knowledge  specially  Oriental  should  be  among  the  subjects 
of  examination,  it  is  probable  that  a  considerable  number 
of  the  most  hopeful  youths  in  the  country  will  be  induced 
to  waste  much  time,  at  that  period  of  life  at  which  time  is 
most  precious,  in  studies  which  will  never,  in  any  conceiv- 
able case,  be  of  the  smallest  use  to  them.  We  think  it 
most  desirable  that  the  examination  should  be  of  such  a 
nature  that  no  candidate  who  may  fail  shall,  to  whatever 
calling  he  may  betake  himself,  have  any  reason  to  regret  the 
time  and  labour  which  he  spent  in  preparing  himself  to  be 
examined. 

Nor  do  we  think  that  we  should  render  any  service  to 
India  by  inducing  her  future  rulers  to  neglect,  in  their 
earlier  years,  European  literature  and  science,  for  studies 
specially  Indian.  We  believe  that  men  who  have  been 
engaged,  up  to  one  or  two  and  twenty,  in  studies  which 
have  no  immediate  connexion  with  the  business  of  any  pro- 


82  APPENDIX   A 

fession,  and  of  which  the  effect  is  merely  to  open,  to  in- 
vigorate, and  to  enrich  the  mind,  will  generally  be  found, 
in  the  business  of  every  profession,  superior  to  men  who 
have,  at  eighteen  or  nineteen,  devoted  themselves  to  the 
special  studies  of  their  calling.  The  most  illustrious  Eng- 
lish jurists  have  been  men  who  have  never  opened  a  law 
book  till  after  the  close  of  a  distinguished  academical 
career;  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  believe  that  they  would 
have  been  greater  lawyers  if  they  had  passed  in  drawing 
pleas  and  conveyances  the  time  which  they  gave  to  Thu- 
cydides,  to  Cicero,  and  to  Newton.  The  duties  of  a  Civil 
Servant  of  the  East  India  Company  are  of  so  high  a  nature 
that  in  his  case  it  is  peculiarly  desirable  that  an  excellent 
general  education,  such  as  may  enlarge  and  strengthen  his 
understanding,  should  precede  the  special  education  which 
must  qualify  him  to  despatch  the  business  of  his  cutcherry. 
It  therefore  seems  to  us  quite  clear  that  those  vernacular 
Indian  languages  which  are  of  no  value  except  for  the 
purpose  of  communicating  with  natives  of  India,  ought  not 
to  be  subjects  of  examination.  But  we  are  inclined,  though 
with  much  distrust  of  our  own  judgment,  to  think  that  a 
distinction  may  properly  be  made  between  the  vernacular 
languages  and  two  languages  which  may  be  called  the  clas- 
sical languages  of  India,  the  Sanscrit  and  the  Arabic.  These 
classical  languages  are  by  no  means  without  intrinsic  value 
in  the  eyes  both  of  philologists  and  of  men  of  taste.  The 
Sanscrit  is  the  great  parent  stock  from  which  most  of  the 
vernacular  languages  of  India  are  derived,  and  stands  to 
them  in  a  relation  similar  to  that  in  which  the  Latin  stands 
to  the  French,  the  Italian,  the  Spanish,  and  the  Portuguese. 
The  Arabic  has  contributed,  though  not  in  the  same  degree 
with  the  Sanscrit,  to  the  formation  of  the  vocabularies  of 
India;  and  it  is  the  source  from  which  all  the  Mahometan 
nations  draw  their  religion,  their  jurisprudence,  and  their 
science.    These  two  languages  are  already  studied  by  a  few 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE       83 

young  men  at  the  great  English  seats  of  learning.  They  can 
be  learned  as  well  here  as  in  the  East;  and  they  are  not  likely 
to  be  studied  in  the  East  unless  some  attention  has  been 
paid  to  them  here.  It  will,  we  apprehend,  very  seldom 
happen  that  a  candidate  will  offer  himself  for  examination 
in  Sanscrit  or  in  Arabic;  but,  as  such  instances  may  occur, 
we  think  it  expedient  to  include  those  languages  in  the  list 
of  subjects. 

As  to  the  other  subjects  we  speak  with  more  confidence. 
Foremost  among  these  subjects  we  place  our  own  language 
and  literature.  One  or  more  themes  for  English  compo- 
sition ought  to  be  proposed.  Two  papers  of  questions 
ought  to  be  set.  One  of  those  papers  should  be  so  framed 
as  to  enable  the  candidates  to  show  their  knowledge  of  the 
history  and  constitution  of  our  country :  the  other  ought  to 
be  so  framed  as  to  enable  them  to  show  the  extent  of  their 
knowledge  of  our  poets,  wits,  and  philosophers. 

In  the  two  great  ancient  languages  there  ought  to  be  an 
examination  not  less  severe  than  those  examinations  by 
which  the  highest  classical  distinctions  are  awarded  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge.  At  least  three  passages  from 
Latin  writers  ought  to  be  set,  to  be  translated  into  English. 
Subjects  should  be  proposed  for  original  composition, 
both  in  Latin  verse  and  in  Latin  prose;  and  passages  of 
English  verse  and  prose  should  be  set,  to  be  turned  into 
Latin.  At  least  six  passages  from  Greek  writers  should  be 
set,  to  be  translated  into  English.  Of  these  passages,  one 
should  be  taken  from  the  Homeric  poems,  one  from  some 
historian  of  the  best  age,  one  from  some  philosopher  of 
the  best  age,  one  from  some  Attic  orator,  and  at  least  one 
from  the  Attic  drama.  The  candidates  ought  to  have  a  full 
opportunity  of  exhibiting  their  skill  in  translating  both  Eng- 
lish prose  and  English  verse  into  Greek;  and  there  should  be 
a  paper  of  questions  which  would  enable  them  to  show  their 
knowledge  of  ancient  history,  both  political  and  literary. 


84  APPENDIX  A 

We  think  that  three  of  the  modern  languages  of  the  Con- 
tinent, the  French,  the  Italian,  and  the  German  ought  to 
be  among  the  subjects  of  examination.  Several  passages 
in  every  one  of  those  languages  should  be  set,  to  be  turned 
into  English;  passages  taken  from  English  writers  should 
be  set,  to  be  turned  into  French,  Italian,  and  German;  and 
papers  of  questions  should  be  framed  which  would  enable 
a  candidate  to  show  his  knowledge  of  the  civil  and  literary 
history  of  France,  Italy,  and  Germany. 

The  examination  in  pure  and  mixed  mathematics  ought 
to  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to  enable  the  judges  to  place  in 
proper  order  all  the  candidates,  from  those  who  have  never 
gone  beyond  Euclid's  Elements  and  the  first  part  of  algebra 
up  to  those  who  possess  the  highest  acquirements.  We 
think  it  important,  however,  that  not  only  the  acquirements, 
but  also  the  mental  powers  and  resources  of  the  competitors 
should  be  brought  to  the  test.  With  this  view  the  examina- 
tion papers  should  contain  a  due  proportion  of  original 
problems,  and  of  questions  calculated  to  ascertain  whether 
the  principles  of  mathematical  science  are  thoroughly 
understood.  The  details  will  probably  be  best  arranged 
by  some  of  those  eminent  men  who  have  lately  been  mod- 
erators in  the  University  of  Cambridge,  and  who  know  by 
experience  how  to  conduct  the  examinations  of  large  num- 
bers of  persons  simultaneously.  It  must,  however,  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  extent  and  direction  of  mathemati- 
cal reading,  especially  in  the  higher  branches,  differ  greatly 
at  the  different  Universities  of  the  United  Kingdom.  The 
mathematical  examination  for  the  Indian  service  must, 
therefore,  in  order  to  do  justice  to  all  candidates,  embrace 
a  wider  range  of  questions  than  is  usual  at  Cambridge, 
Oxford,  or  Dublin. 

Of  late  years  some  natural  sciences  which  do  not  fall 
under  the  head  of  mixed  mathematics,  and  especially 
chemistry,  geology,  mineralogy,  botany,  and  zoology,  have 


REPORT  ON  THE   INDIAN  CIVIL  SERVICE      85 

been  introduced  as  a  part  of  general  education  into  several 
of  our  Universities  and  colleges.  There  may  be  some  prac- 
tical difficulty  in  arranging  the  details  of  an  examination 
in  these  sciences;  but  it  is  a  difficulty  which  has,  we 
believe,  been  at  some  seats  of  learning  already  overcome. 
We  have  no  hesitation  in  recommending  that  there  should 
be  at  least  one  paper  of  questions  relating  to  these  branches 
of  knowledge. 

We  propose  to  include  the  moral  sciences  in  the  scheme 
of  examination.  Those  sciences  are,  it  is  well  known, 
much  studied  both  at  Oxford  and  at  the  Scottish  Universi- 
ties. Whether  this  study  shall  have  to  do  with  mere  words 
or  with  things,  whether  it  shall  degenerate  into  a  formal 
and  scholastic  pedantry,  or  shall  train  the  mind  for  the 
highest  purposes  of  active  life,  will  depend,  to  great 
extent,  on  the  way  in  which  the  examination  is  conducted. 
We  are  of  opinion  that  the  examination  should  be  con- 
ducted in  the  freest  manner,  that  mere  technicalities  should 
be  avoided,  and  that  the  candidate  should  not  be  confined 
to  any  particular  system.  The  subjects  which  fall  under 
this  head  are  the  elements  of  moral  and  political  philoso- 
phy, the  history  of  the  ancient  and  modern  schools  of 
moral  and  political  philosophy,  the  science  of  logic,  and 
the  inductive  method  of  which  the  Novum  Organum  is  the 
great  text-book.  The  object  of  the  examiners  should  be 
rather  to  put  to  the  test  the  candidate's  powers  of  mind 
than  to  ascertain  the  extent  of  his  metaphysical  reading. 

The  whole  examination  ought,  we  think,  to  be  carried 
on  by  means  of  written  papers.  The  candidates  ought  not 
to  be  allowed  the  help  of  any  book;  nor  ought  they,  after 
once  a  subject  for  composition  has  been  proposed  to  them, 
or  a  paper  of  questions  placed  before  them,  to  leave  the 
place  of  examination  till  they  have  finished  their  work. 

It  is,  of  course,  not  to  be  expected,  that  any  man  of 
twenty-two  will  have  made  considerable  proficiency  in  all 


86  APPENDIX  A 

the  subjects  of  examination.  An  excellent  mathematician 
will  often  have  little  Greek,  and  an  excellent  Greek  scholar 
will  be  entirely  ignorant  of  French  and  Italian.  Nothing 
can  be  further  from  our  wish  than  to  hold  out  premiums  for 
knowledge  of  wide  surface  and  of  small  depth.  We  are  of 
opinion  that  a  candidate  ought  to  be  allowed  no  credit  at 
all  for  taking  up  a  subject  in  which  he  is  a  mere  smatterer. 
Profound  and  accurate  acquaintance  with  a  single  language 
ought  to  tell  more  than  bad  translations  and  themes  in  six 
languages.  A  single  paper  which  shows  that  the  writer 
thoroughly  understands  the  principles  of  the  differential 
calculus  ought  to  tell  more  than  twenty  superficial  and 
incorrect  answers  to  questions  about  chemistry,  botany, 
mineralogy,  metaphysics,  logic,  and  English  history. 

It  will  be  necessary  that  a  certain  number  of  marks 
should  be  assigned  to  each  subject,  and  that  the  place  of 
a  candidate  should  be  determined  by  the  sum  total  of  the 
marks  which  he  has  gained.  The  marks  ought,  we  con- 
ceive, to  be  distributed  among  the  subjects  of  examina- 
tion, in  such  a  manner  that  no  part  of  the  kingdom,  and 
no  class  of  schools,  shall  exclusively  furnish  servants  to 
the  East  India  Company.  It  would  be  grossly  unjust,  for 
example,  to  the  great  academical  institutions  of  England, 
not  to  allow  skill  in  Greek  and  Latin  versification  to  have 
a  considerable  share  in  determining  the  issue  of  the  compe- 
tition. Skill  in  Greek  and  Latin  versification  has  indeed 
no  direct  tendency  to  form  a  judge,  a  financier,  or  a  diplo- 
matist. But  the  youth  who  does  best  what  all  the  ablest 
and  most  ambitious  youths  about  him  are  trying  to  do  well 
will  generally  prove  a  superior  man;  nor  can  we  doubt  that 
an  accomplishment  by  which  Fox  and  Canning,  Grenville 
and  Wellesley,  Mansfield  and  Tenterden,  first  distinguished 
themselves  above  their  fellows,  indicates  powers  of  mind, 
which,  properly  trained  and  directed,  may  do  great  service 
to  the  State.     On  the  other  hand,  we  must  remember  that 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE       87 

in  the  north  of  this  island  the  art  of  metrical  composition 
in  the  ancient  languages  is  very  little  cultivated,  and  that 
men  so  eminent  as  Dugald  Stewart,  Horner,  Jeffrey,  and 
Mackintosh,  would  probably  have  been  quite  unable  to 
write  a  good  copy  of  Latin  alcaics,  or  to  translate  ten  lines 
of  Shakespeare  into  Greek  iambics.  We  wish  to  see  such 
a  system  of  examination  established  as  shall  not  exclude 
from  the  service  of  the  East  India  Company  either  a  Mack- 
intosh or  a  Tenterden,  either  a  Canning  or  a  Horner. 
We  have,  with  an  anxious  desire  to  deal  fairly  by  all  parts 
of  the  United  Kingdom,  and  by  all  places  of  liberal  edu- 
cation, framed  the  following  scale,  which  we  venture  to 
submit  for  your  consideration : 

English  Language  and  Literature : 

Composition 500 

History 500 

General  literature        ...••..  500 

1500 

Greek 750 

Latin 750 

French 375 

German 375 

Italian 375 

Mathematics,  pure  and  mixed 1000 

Natural  sciences 500 

Moral  sciences 5cx> 

Sanskrit 375 

Arabic 375 

"68^ 


It  seems  to  us  probable,  that  of  the  6875  marks,  which  are 
the  maximum,  no  candidate  will  ever  obtain  half.  A  can- 
didate who  is  at  once  a  distinguished  classical  scholar  and 
a  distinguished  mathematician  will  be,  as  he  ought  to  be. 


88  APPENDIX   A 

certain  of  success.  A  classical  scholar  who  is  no  mathema- 
tician, or  a  mathematician  who  is  no  classical  scholar,  will 
be  certain  of  success,  if  he  is  well  read  in  the  history  and 
literature  of  his  own  country.  A  young  man  who  has 
scarcely  any  knowledge  of  mathematics,  little  Latin,  and 
no  Greek,  may  pass  such  an  examination  in  English, 
French,  Italian,  German,  geology,  and  chemistry,  that  he 
may  stand  at  the  head  of  the  list. 

It  can  scarcely  be  necessary  for  us  to  add,  that  no  expense 
ought  to  be  grudged  which  may  be  necessary  to  secure  the 
services  of  the  ablest  examiners  in  every  branch  of  learning. 
Experience  justifies  us  in  pronouncing  with  entire  confi- 
dence that,  if  the  examiners  be  well  chosen,  it  is  utterly 
impossible  that  the  delusive  show  of  knowledge  which  is 
the  effect  of  the  process  popularly  called  cramming  can 
ever  be  successful  against  real  learning  and  ability. 

Whether  the  examinations  ought  to  be  held  half-yearly 
or  annually  is  a  question  which  cannot,  we  think,  be  satis- 
factorily determined  until  after  the  first  experiment  has 
been  made. 

When  the  result  of  the  examination  has  been  declared, 
the  successful  candidates  will  not  yet  be  Civil  Servants  of 
the  East  India  Company,  but  only  Civil  Servants  elect.  It 
appears  from  the  fortieth  clause  of  the  Act  to  be  the  inten- 
tion of  the  Legislature  that,  before  they  proceed  to  the 
East,  there  should  be  a  period  of  probation  and  a  second 
examination. 

In  what  studies,  then,  ought  the  period  of  probation  to 
be  passed  ?  And  what  ought  to  be  the  nature  of  the  second 
examination? 

It  seems  to  us  that,  from  the  moment  at  which  the  suc- 
cessful candidates,  whom  we  will  now  call  probationers, 
have  been  set  apart  as  persons  who  will,  in  all  probability, 
have  to  bear  a  part  in  the  government  of  India,  they  should 
give  their  whole  minds  to  the  duties  of  their  new  position. 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE      89 

They  must  now  be  considered  as  having  finished  their  gen- 
eral education,  and  as  having  finished  it  with  honour. 
Their  serious  studies  must  henceforth  be  such  as  have  a 
special  tendency  to  fit  them  for  their  calling. 

Of  the  special  knowledge  which  a  Civil  Servant  of  the 
Company  ought  to  possess,  much  can  be  acquired  only  in 
India,  and  much  may  be  acquired  far  more  easily  in  India 
than  in  England.  It  would  evidently  be  a  mere  waste  of 
time  to  employ  a  month  here  in  learning  what  may  be 
better  learned  in  a  week  at  Calcutta  or  Madras.  But  there 
are  some  kinds  of  knowledge  which  are  not  considered  as 
essential  parts  of  the  liberal  education  of  our  youth,  but 
which  it  is  most  important  that  a  Civil  Servant  of  the  Com- 
pany should  possess,  and  which  he  may  acquire  in  England 
not  less  easily,  indeed  more  easily,  than  in  India.  We 
conceive  that  every  probationer  ought,  during  the  interval 
between  his  first  and  his  second  examination,  to  apply  him- 
self vigorously  to  the  acquiring  of  these  kinds  of  knowledge. 

The  subjects  of  his  new  studies  will,  we  apprehend,  be 
found  to  range  themselves  under  four  heads. 

He  should,  in  the  first  place,  make  himself  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  history  of  India,  in  the  largest  sense  of 
the  word  history.  He  should  study  that  history,  not 
merely  in  the  works  of  Orme,  of  Wilks,  and  of  Mill,  but 
also  in  the  travels  of  Bernier,  in  the  odes  of  Sir  William 
Jones,  and  in  the  journals  of  Heber.  He  should  be  well 
informed  about  the  geography  of  the  country,  about  its 
natural  productions,  about  its  manufactures,  about  the  phys- 
ical and  moral  qualities  of  the  different  races  which  inhabit 
it,  and  about  the  doctrines  and  rites  of  those  religions  which 
have  so  powerful  an  influence  on  the  population.  He 
should  trace  with  peculiar  care  the  progress  of  the  British 
power.  He  should  understand  the  constitution  of  our 
Government,  and  the  nature  of  the  relations  between  that 
Government    and    its  vassals,   Mussulman,   Mahratta,   and 


90  APPENDIX   A 

Rajpoot.  He  should  consult  the  most  important  parlia- 
mentary reports  and  debates  on  Indian  affairs.  All  this  may 
be  done  with  very  much  greater  facility  in  England  than  in 
any  part  of  India,  except  at  the  three  seats  of  Government, 
if  indeed  the  three  seats  of  Government  ought  to  be 
excepted. 

Secondly,  it  seems  to  us  to  be  desirable  that  every  pro- 
bationer should  bestow  some  attention  on  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  jurisprudence.  The  great  majority  of  the  Civil 
Servants  of  the  East  India  Company  are  employed  in  the 
administration  of  justice.  A  large  proportion  of  them  are 
judges;  and  some  of  the  most  important  functions  of  the 
collectors  are  strictly  judicial.  That  the  general  principles 
of  jurisprudence  may  be  studied  here  with  more  advantage 
than  in  India  will  be  universally  acknowledged. 

Thirdly,  we  think  that  every  probationer  ought  to  prepare 
himself  for  the  discharge  of  his  duties  by  paying  jome  at- 
tention to  financial  and  commercial  science.  He  should 
understand  the  mode  of  keeping  and  checking  accounts,  the 
principles  of  banking,  the  laws  which  regulate  the  ex- 
changes, the  nature  of  public  debts,  funded  and  unfunded, 
and  the  effect  produced  by  different  systems  of  taxation  on 
the  prosperity  of  nations.  We  would  by  no  means  require 
him  to  subscribe  any  article  of  faith  touching  any  contro- 
verted point  in  the  science  of  political  economy;  but  it  is 
not  too  much  to  expect  that  he  will  make  himself  acquainted 
with  those  treatises  on  political  economy  which  have  become 
standard  works.  These  studies  can  undoubtedly  be  prose- 
cuted with  more  advantage  in  England  than  in  India. 

Fourthly,  we  think  that  the  study  of  the  vernacular  lan- 
guages of  India  may,  with  great  advantage,  be  begun  in 
England.  It  is,  indeed,  only  by  intercourse  with  the 
native  population  that  an  Englishman  can  acquire  the 
power  of  talking  Bengalee  or  Telugu  with  fluency.  But 
familiarity  with  the  Bengalee  or  Telugu  alphabet,  skill  in 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE      9I 

tracing  the  Bengalee  or  Telugu  character,  and  knowledge 
of  the  Bengalee  or  Telugu  grammar,  may  be  acquired 
as  quickly  in  this  country  as  in  the  East.  Nay,  we  are 
inclined  to  believe  that  an  English  student  will,  at  his 
first  introduction  to  an  Indian  language,  make  more 
rapid  progress  under  good  English  teachers  than  under 
pundits,  to  whom  he  is  often  unable  to  explain  his  diffi- 
culties. We  are,  therefore,  of  opinion  that  every  proba- 
tioner should  acquire  in  this  country  an  elementary 
knowledge  of  at  least  one  Indian  language. 

If  this  recommendation  be  adopted,  it  will  be  desirable 
that  the  probationers  should,  immediately  after  the  first 
examination,  be  distributed  among  the  Presidencies.  It 
will  indeed  be  desirable  that  the  division  of  the  Bengal 
Civil  Service  into  two  parts,  one  destined  for  the  upper 
and  the  other  for  the  lower  provinces,  should  be  made  here 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment,  instead  of  being  made,  as 
it  now  is,  at  Calcutta. 

In  what  manner  the  distribution  of  Civil  Servants  among 
the  Presidencies  ought  henceforth  to  be  made  is  a  question 
which,  though  it  has  not  been  referred  to  us,  is  yet  so  closely 
connected  with  the  questions  which  have  been  referred  to 
us,  that  we  have  been  forced  to  take  it  into  consideration. 
We  are  disposed  to  think  that  it  might  be  advisable  to  allow 
the  probationers,  according  to  the  order  in  which  they 
stand  at  the  first  examination,  to  choose  their  Presidencies. 
The  only  objection  to  this  arrangement  is,  that,  as  the  Presi- 
dency of  Bengal  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the  theatre  on 
which  the  abilities  of  a  Civil  Servant  may  be  most  advan- 
tageously displayed,  all  the  most  distinguished  young  men 
would  choose  Bengal,  and  would  leave  Madras  and  Bombay 
to  those  who  stood  at  the  bottom  of  the  list.  We  admit 
that  this  would  be  an  evil;  but  it  would  be  an  evil  which 
must,  we  conceive,  speedily  cure  itself;  for  as  soon  as  it 
becomes  notorious  that  the  ablest  men  in  the  Civil  Service 


92  •  APPENDIX   A 

are  all  collected  in  one  part  of  India,  and  are  there  stop- 
ping each  other's  way,  a  probationer  who  is  free  to  make 
his  choice  will  prefer  some  other  part  of  India,  where, 
though  the  prizes  may  be  a  little  less  attractive,  the  com- 
petition will  be  less  formidable.  If,  however,  it  should  be 
thought  inexpedient  to  allow  the  probationers  to  choose 
their  own  Presidencies  in  the  manner  which  we  have  sug- 
gested, it  seems  to  us  that  the  best  course  would  be  to  make 
the  distribution  by  lot.  We  are  satisfied  that,  if  the  dis- 
tribution be  made  arbitrarily,  either  by  the  Directors  or  by 
Her  Majesty's  Minister  for  Indian  Affairs,  it  will  be 
viewed  with  much  suspicion,  and  will  excite  much  mur- 
muring. At  present  nobody  complains  of  the  distribution. 
A  gentleman  who  has  obtained  a  Bombay  writership  for  his 
son  is  delighted  and  thankful.  It  may  not  be  quite  so 
acceptable  as  a  Bengal  writership  would  have  been,  but  it 
is  a  free  gift,  it  is  a  most  valuable  favour,  and  it  would  be 
the  most  odious  ingratitude  to  repine  because  it  is  not  more 
valuable  still.  Henceforth  an  appointment  to  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice of  the  Company  will  be  not  matter  of  favour,  but  mat- 
ter of  right.  He  who  obtains  such  an  appointment  will  owe 
it  solely  to  his  own  abilities  and  industry.  If,  therefore, 
the  Court  of  Directors  or  the  Board  of  Control  should  send 
him  to  Bombay  when  he  wishes  to  be  sent  to  Bengal,  and 
should  send  to  Bengal  young  men  who  in  the  examination 
stood  far  below  him,  he  will  naturally  think  himself  injured. 
His  family  and  friends  will  espouse  his  quarrel.  A  cry  will 
be  raised,  that  one  man  is  favoured  because  he  is  related 
to  the  Chairman,  and  another  because  he  is  befriended 
by  a  Member  of  Parliament  who  votes  with  the  Government. 
It  seems  to  us,  therefore,  advisable  that  the  distribution  of 
the  Civil  Servants  among  the  Presidencies,  if  it  cannot 
be  made  the  means  of  rewarding  merit,  should  be  left  to 
chance.  After  the  allotment,  of  course,  any  two  probationers 
should  be  at  liberty  to  make  an  exchange  by  consent. 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE      93 

But,  in  whatever  manner  the  distribution  may  be  made, 
it  ought  to  be  made  as  soon  as  the  issue  of  the  first  exam- 
ination is  decided;  for,  till  the  distribution  is  made,  it 
will  be  impossible  for  any  probationer  to  know  what  ver- 
nacular language  of  India  it  would  be  most  expedient  for 
him  to  study.  The  Hindostanee,  indeed,  will  be  valuable 
to  him,  wherever  he  may  be  stationed;  but  no  other  living 
language  is  spoken  over  one-third  of  India.  Tamul  would 
be  as  useless  in  Bengal  and  Bengalee  would  be  as  useless  at 
Agra,  as  Welsh  in  Portugal. 

We  should  recommend  that  every  probationer,  for  what- 
ever Presidency  he  may  be  destined,  should  be  permitted 
to  choose  Hindostanee  as  the  language  in  which  he  will 
pass.  A  probationer  who  is  to  reside  in  the  lower  prov- 
inces of  the  Bengal  Presidency  should  be  allowed  to  choose 
either  Hindostanee  or  Bengalee.  A  probationer  who  is  to  go 
to  the  upper  provinces  should  be  allowed  to  choose  among 
Hindostanee,  Hindee,  and  Persian.  A  probationer  who  is 
to  go  to  Madras  should  be  allowed  to  choose  among  Hin- 
dostanee, Telugu,  and  Tamul.  A  probationer  who  is  to  go 
to  Bombay  should  be  allowed  to  choose  among  Hindo- 
stanee, Mahrattee,  and  Guzeratee. 

It  is  probable  that  some  probationers  who  have  a  peculiar 
talent  for  learning  languages  will  study  more  than  one  of 
the  dialects  among  which  they  are  allowed  to  make  their 
choice.  Indeed  it  is  not  improbable  that  some  who  take 
an  interest  in  philology  will  apply  themselves  voluntarily  to 
the  Sanscrit  and  the  Arabic.  It  will  hereafter  be  seen  that, 
though  we  require  as  the  indispensable  condition  of  pass- 
ing only  an  elementary  knowledge  of  one  of  the  vernacular 
tongues  of  India,  we  propose  to  give  encouragement  to 
those  students  who  aspire  to  be  eminent  orientalists. 

The  four  studies,  then,  to  which,  in  our  opinion,  the 
probationers  ought  to  devote  themselves  during  the  period 
of  probation,  are,  first,  Indian  history;  secondly,  the  science 


94  APPENDIX   A 

of  jurisprudence;  thirdly,  commercial  and  financial  science; 
and  fourthly,  the  oriental  tongues. 

The  time  of  probation  ought  not,  we  think,  to  be  less 
than  one  year,  nor  more  than  two  years. 

There  should  be  periodical  examinations,  at  which  a 
probationer  of  a  year's  standing  may  pass,  if  he  can,  and 
at  which  every  probationer  of  two  years'  standing  must 
pass,  on  pain  of  forfeiting  his  appointment.  This  exam- 
ination should,  of  course,  be  in  the  four  branches  of  know- 
ledge already  mentioned  as  those  to  which  the  attention  of 
the  probationers  ought  to  be  especially  directed.  Marks 
should  be  assigned  to  the  different  subjects,  as  at  the  first 
examination;  and  it  seems  to  us  reasonable  that  an  equal 
number  of  marks  should  be  assigned  to  all  the  four  subjects, 
on  the  supposition  that  each  probationer  is  examined  in  only 
one  of  the  vernacular  languages  of  India.  Sometimes, 
however,  as  we  have  said,  a  probationer  may  study  more 
than  one  of  these  vernacular  languages  of  India  among 
which  he  is  at  liberty  to  make  his  choice,  or  may,  in  addi- 
tion to  one  or  more  of  the  vernacular  languages  of  India, 
learn  Sanscrit  or  Arabic.  We  think  it  reasonable  that  to 
every  language  in  which  he  offers  himself  for  examination 
an  equal  number  of  marks  should  be  assigned. 

When  the  marks  have  been  cast  up,  the  probationers 
who  have  been  examined  should  be  arranged  in  order  of 
merit.  All  those  who  have  been  two  years  probationers, 
and  who  have,  in  the  opinion  of  the  examiners,  used  their 
time  well,  and  made  a  respectable  proficiency,  should  be 
declared  Civil  Servants  of  the  Company.  Every  proba- 
tioner who,  having  been  a  probationer  only  one  year,  has 
obtained  a  higher  place  than  some  of  the  two-year  men 
who  have  passed,  should  also  be  declared  a  Civil  Servant 
of  the  Company.  All  the  Civil  Servants  who  pass  in  one 
year  should  take  rank  in  the  service  according  to  their 
places  in  the  final  examination.    Thus  a  salutary  emulation 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE       95 

will  be  kept  up  to  the  last  moment.  It  ought  to  be  ob- 
served, that  the  precedency  which  we  propose  to  give  to 
merit  will  not  be  merely  honorary,  but  will  be  attended 
by  very  solid  advantages.  It  is  in  order  of  seniority  that 
the  members  of  the  Civil  Service  succeed  to  those  annui- 
ties to  which  they  are  all  looking  forward,  and  it  mdy 
depend  on  the  manner  in  which  a  young  man  acquits  him- 
self at  his  final  examination,  whether  he  shall  remain  in 
India  till  he  is  past  fifty,  or  shall  be  able  to  return  to  Eng- 
land at  forty-seven  or  forty-eight. 

The  instances  in  which  persons  who  have  been  successful 
in  the  first  examination  will  fail  in  the  final  examination, 
will,  we  hope  and  believe,  be  very  few.  We  hope  and 
believe,  also,  that  it  will  very  rarely  be  necessary  to  expel 
any  probationer  from  the  service  on  account  of  grossly 
profligate  habits,  or  of  any  action  unbecoming  a  man  of 
honour.  The  probationers  will  be  young  men  superior  to 
their  fellows  in  science  and  literature;  and  it  is  not  among 
young  men  superior  to  their  fellows  in  science  and  literature 
that  scandalous  immorality  is  generally  found  to  prevail. 
It  is  notoriously  not  once  in  twenty  years  that  a  student 
who  has  attained  high  academical  distinction  is  expelled 
from  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  Indeed,  early  superiority  in 
science  and  literature  generally  indicates  the  existence  of 
some  qualities  which  are  securities  against  vice,  —  indus- 
try, self-denial,  a  taste  for  pleasures  not  sensual,  a  laudable 
desire  of  honourable  distinction,  a  still  more  laudable 
desire  to  obtain  the  approbation  of  friends  and  relations. 
We  therefore  believe  that  the  intellectual  test  which  is  about 
to  be  established  will  be  found  in  practice  to  be  also  the 
best  moral  test  that  can  be  devised. 

One  important  question  still  remains  to  be  considered. 
Where  are  the  probationers  to  study?  Are  they  all  to 
study  at  Haileybury?  Is  it  to  be  left  to  themselves  to 
decide  whether   they  will   study   at   Haileybury  or   else- 


96  APPENDIX   A 

where?  Or  will  the  Board  of  Control  reserve  to  itself  the 
power  of  determining  which  of  them  shall  study  at  Hailey- 
bury,  and  which  of  them  shall  be  at  liberty  to  study  else- 
where ? 

That  the  college  at  Haileybury  is  to  be  kept  up  is  clearly 
implied  in  the  terms  of  the  37th  and  39th  clauses  of  the 
India  Act.  That  the  Board  of  Control  may  make  regula- 
tions which  would  admit  into  the  Civil  Service  persons  who 
have  not  studied  at  Haileybury  is  as  clearly  implied  in  the 
terms  of  the  40th  and  41st  clauses.  Whether  the  law  ought 
to  be  altered  is  a  question  on  which  we  do  not  presume  to 
give  any  opinion.  On  the  supposition  that  the  law  is  to 
remain  unaltered,  we  venture  to  offer  some  suggestions 
which  appear  to  us  to  be  important. 

There  must  be,  we  apprehend,  a  complete  change  in  the 
discipline  of  the  college.  Almost  all  the  present  students 
are  under  twenty;  almost  all  the  new  students  will  be  above 
twenty-one.  The  present  students  have  gone  to  Haileybury 
from  schools  where  they  have  been  treated  as  boys.  The 
new  students  will  generally  go  thither  from  Universities, 
where  they  have  been  accustomed  to  enjoy  the  liberty  of 
men.  It  will  therefore  be  absolutely  necessary  that  the 
regulations  of  the  college  should  be  altered,  and  that  the 
probationers  should  be  subject  to  no  more  severe  restraint 
than  is  imposed  on  a  bachelor  of  arts  at  Cambridge  or 
Oxford. 

There  must  be  an  extensive  change  even  in  the  buildings 
of  the  college.  At  present,  each  student  has  a  single  small 
chamber,  which  is  at  once  his  parlour  and  bedroom.  It 
will  be  impossible  to  expect  men  of  two  or  three  and 
twenty,  who  have  long  been  accustomed  to  be  lodged  in  a 
very  different  manner,  to  be  content  with  such  accommo- 
dation. 

There  must  be  a  great  change  in  the  system  of  study. 
At  present,  the  students  generally  go  to  Haileybury  before 


REPORT   ON   THE   INDIAN   CIVIL   SERVICE       9/ 

they  have  completed  their  general  education.  Their  gen- 
eral education  and  their  special  education,  therefore,  go  on 
together.  Henceforth,  the  students  must  be  considered  as 
men  whose  general  education  has  been  finished,  and  fin- 
ished with  great  success.  Greek,  Latin,  and  mathematics 
will  no  longer  be  parts  of  the  course  of  study.  The  whole 
education  will  be  special,  and  ought,  in  some  departments, 
to  be  of  a  different  kind  from  that  which  has  hitherto  been 
given. 

We  are  far,  indeed,  from  wishing  to  detract  from  the 
merit  of  those  professors,  all  of  them  highly  respectable  and 
some  of  them  most  eminent,  who  have  taught  law  and 
political  economy  at  Haileybury.  But  it  is  evident  that 
a  course  of  lectures  on  law  or  political  economy  given  to 
boys  of  eighteen,  who  have  been  selected  merely  by  favour, 
must  be  a  very  different  thing  from  a  course  of  lectures  on 
law  or  political  economy  given  to  men  of  twenty-three,  who 
have  been  selected  on  account  of  their  superior  abilities 
and  attainments.  As  respects  law,  indeed,  we  doubt 
whether  the  most  skilful  instructor  will  be  able  at  Hailey- 
bury to  impart  to  his  pupils  that  kind  of  knowledge  which 
it  is  most  desirable  that  they  should  acquire.  Some  at 
least  of  the  probationers  ought,  we  conceive,  not  merely 
to  attend  lectures,  and  to  read  well  chosen  books  on  juris- 
prudence, but  to  see  the  actual  working  of  the  machinery 
by  which  justice  is  administered.  They  ought  to  hear  legal 
questions,  in  which  great  principles  are  involved,  argued 
by  the  ablest  counsel,  and  decided  by  the  highest  courts  in 
the  realm.  They  ought  to  draw  up  reports  of  the  argu- 
ments both  of  the  advocates  and  of  the  judges.  They  ought 
to  attend  both  civil  and  criminal  trials,  and  to  take  notes 
of  the  evidence,  and  of  the  discussions  and  decisions 
respecting  the  evidence.  It  might  be  particularly  desirable 
that  they  should  attend  the  sittings  of  the  Judicial  Com- 
mittee of  the  Privy  Council  when  important  appeals  from 


98 


APPENDIX     A 


India  are  under  the  consideration  of  that  tribunal.  A  pro- 
bationer, while  thus  employed,  should  regularly  submit  his 
notes  of  arguments  and  of  evidence  to  his  legal  instructor 
for  correction.  Such  a  training  as  this  would,  we  are 
inclined  to  think,  be  an  excellent  preparation  for  official 
life  in  India;  and  we  must  leave  it  to  the  Board  of  Con- 
trol to  consider  whether  any  plan  can  be  devised  by  which 
such  a  training  can  be  made  compatible  with  residence  at 
Haileybury. 

We  have,  etc. 


(Signed) 


November,  1854. 


T.  B.  Macaulay. 

ashburton. 

Henry  Melvill. 

Benjamin  Jowett. 

John  George  Shaw  Lefevre. 


APPENDIX   B 
Examinations  for  the  Civil  Service  of  India 

An  open  Competitive  Examination  for  admission  to  the 
Civil  Service  of  India  will  be  held  in  London,  under  the 
subjoined  Regulations,  commencing  on  the  ist  August, 
1899. 

The  number  of  persons  to  be  selected  at  this  Examination 
will  be  announced  hereafter. 

No  person  will  be  admitted  to  compete  from  whom  the 
Secretary^  Civil  Service  Commission,  has  not  received  on  or 
before  the  3  ist  MAY,  1889,  an  application  on  the  prescribed 
form,  accompanied  by  a  list  of  the  subjects  in  which  the 
Candidate  desires  to  be  examined. 

The  Order  for  admission  to  the  Examination  will  be 
posted  on  the  18th  July  1899,  ^'^  ^^^  address  given  on  the 
Form  of  Application.  It  will  contain  instructions  as  to  the 
time  and  place  at  which  candidates  will  be  required  to 
attend,  and  as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  fee  (;^6)  is  to 
be  paid. 

Civil  Service  Commission, 
July,  1898. 

REGULATIONS 

*^*  The  following  Regulations,  made  by  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  India  in  Council,  are  liable  to  alteration  from  year 
to  year. 

I.  An  Examination  for  admission  to  the  Civil  Service 
of  India,  open  to  all  qualified  persons,  will  be  held  in  Lon- 
don in  August  of  each  year.     The  date  of  the  Examination 

99 


100  APPENDIX   B 

and  the  number  of  appointments  to  be  made  for  each 
Province  will  be  announced  beforehand  by  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice Commissioners. 

2.  No  person  will  be  deemed  qualified  who  shall  not 
satisfy  the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  :  — 

(t.)  That  he  is  a  natural-born  subject  of  Her  Majesty. 

(».)  That  he  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  had 
not  attained  the  age  of  twenty-three,  on  the  first  day  of  the 
year  in  which  the  Examination  is  held. 

(N.B.  — In  the  case  of  Natives  of  India  it  will  be  necessary 
for  a  Candidate  to  obtain  a  certificate  of  age  and  nation- 
ality signed,  should  he  be  a  resident  in  British  India,  by 
the  Secretary  to  Government  of  the  Province,  or  the  Com- 
missioner of  the  Division  within  which  his  family  resides, 
or  should  he  reside  in  a  Native  State,  by  the  highest  Politi- 
cal Officer  accredited  to  the  State  in  which  his  family 
resides. 

{Hi.)  That  he  has  no  disease,  constitutional  affection,  or 
bodily  infirmity  unfitting  him,  or  likely  to  unfit  him,  for 
the  Civil  Service  of  India. 

{iv.)  That  he  is  of  good  moral  character. 

3.  Should  the  evidence  upon  the  above  points  be  prima 
facie  satisfactory  to  the  Civil  'Service  Commissioners,  the 
Candidate,  on  payment  of  the  prescribed  fee  will  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  Examination.  The  Commissioners  may 
however  in  their  discretion  at  any  time  prior  to  the  grant 
of  the  Certificate  of  Qualification  hereinafter  referred  to, 
institute  such  further  inquiries  as  they  may  deem  necessary; 
and  if  the  result  of  such  inquiries,  in  the  case  of  any  Can- 
didate, should  be  unsatisfactory  to  them  in  any  of  the  above 
respects,  he  will  be  ineligible  for  admission  to  the  Civil 
Service  of  India,  and  if  already  selected,  will  be  removed 
from  the  position  of  a  Probationer. 

4.  The  Open  Competitive  Examination  will  take  place 
only  in  the  following  branches  of  knowledge :  — 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA     lOI 


English  Composition  . 

Sanskrit  Language  and  Literature 

Arabic  Language  and  Literature   . 

Greek  Language  and  Literature    . 

Latin  Language  and  Literature 

English  Language  and  Literature  (including  special 

period  named  by  the  Commissioners  ^) 
French  Language  and  Literature  . 
German  Language  and  Literature 
Mathematics  (pure  and  applied)  . 
Advanced     Mathematical     subjects      (pure     and 

applied) 

Natural  Science,  i.e.  any  number  not  exceeding 
three  of  the  following  subjects:  — 
Elementary    Chemistry    and     Elementary 

Physics     ......      600 

(N.B.  This  subject  may  not  be  taken 
up  by  those  who  offer  either  Higher 
Chemistry  or  Higher  Physics.) 


Higher  Chemistry 
Higher  Physics 
Geology  . 
Botany     . 
Zoology  . 
Animal  Physiology 


600 
600 
600 
600 
600 
600 

Greek  History  (Ancient,  including  Constitution)  . 

Roman  History  (Ancient,  including  Constitution) 

English  History  ....... 

General  Modern  History  (one  of  the  periods  speci- 
fied in  the  syllabus  issued  by  the  Commis- 
sioners^)          . 


Marks 
500 
500 
500 

500 
500 
500 
900 

900 


1800 


400 
400 
500 


500 


*  A  Syllabus,  defining  the  character  of  the  Examination  in  the  vari- 
ous subjects,  may  be  obtained  on  application  to  the  Secretary,  Civil 
Service  Commission. 


102  APPENDIX  B 

Marks 

Logic    and    Mental    Philosophy    (Ancient    and 

Modern) 400 

Moral  Philosophy  (Ancient  and  Modern)       .         .         400 
Political  Economy  and  Economic  History    .         .         500 
Political  Science  (including  Analytical  Jurispru- 
dence, the  early  History  of  Institutions,  and 

Theory  of  Legislation) 500 

Roman  Law         .......         500 

English  Law.  Under  the  head  of  "  English  Law  " 
shall  be  included  the  following  subjects,  viz. :  — 
(i)  Law  of  Contract;  (2)  Law  of  Evidence; 
(3)  Law  of  the  Constitution;  (4)  Criminal 
Law;  (5)  Law  of  Real  Property;  and  of  these 
five  subjects  Candidates  shall  be  at  liberty  to 
offer  any  four,  but  not  more  than  four  .  .  500 
Candidates  are  at  liberty  to  name  any  or  all  of  these 
branches  of  knowledge.     None  is  obligatory. 

5.  The  merit  of  the  persons  examined  will  be  estimated 
by  marks;  and  the  number  set  opposite  to  each  branch  in 
the  preceding  regulation  denotes  the  greatest  number  of 
marks  that  can  be  obtained  in  respect  of  it. 

6.  The  marks  assigned  to  Candidates  in  each  branch  will 
be  subject  to  such  deduction  as  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioners may  deem  necessary^  in  order  to  secure  that  no 
credit  be  allowed  for  merely  superficial  knowledge. 

7.  The  Examination  will  be  conducted  on  paper  and 
viva  voce,  as  may  be  deemed  necessary. 

8.  The  marks  obtained  by  each  Candidate,  in  respect  of 
each  of  the  branches  in  which  he  shall  have  been  examined, 
will  be  added  up  and  the  names  of  the  several  Candidates 
who  shall  have  obtained,  after  the  deduction  above  men- 
tioned, a  greater  aggregate  number  of  marks  than  any  of  the 

^  No  deduction  will  be  made  from  the  marks  assigned  to  Candidates 
in  Mathematics  or  English  Composition. 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA     103 

remaining  Candidates,  will  be  set  forth  in  order  of  merit,  and 
such  Candidates  shall  be  deemed  to  be  selected  Candidates 
for  the  Civil  Service  of  India,  provided  they  appear  to  be  in 
other  respects  duly  qualified.  Should  any  of  the  selected 
Candidates  become  disqualified,  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
India  will  determine  whether  the  vacancy  thus  created  shall 
be  filled  up  or  not.  In  the  former  case,  the  Candidate  next 
in  order  of  merit,  and  in  other  respects  duly  qualified,  shall 
be  deemed  to  be  a  selected  Candidate.  A  Candidate  en- 
titled to  be  deemed  a  selected  Candidate,  but  declining 
to  accept  the  nomination  as  such,  which  may  be  offered  to 
him,  will  be  disqualified  for  any  subsequent  competition. 

9.  Selected  Candidates  before  proceeding  to  India  will 
be  on  probation  for  one  year,  at  the  end  of  which  time  they 
will  be  examined,  with  a  view  of  testing  their  progress  in 
the  following  subjects :  ^  — 


Marks 


Compulsory  — 

1.  Indian  Penal  Code  and  Criminal  Procedure 

Code 500 

2.  The  principal  Vernacular  Language  of  the 

Province    to  which   the    Candidate    is 
assigned 400 

3.  The  Indian  Evidence  Act  and  the  Indian 

Contract  Act  .....  500 
Optional.  (Not  more  than  two  of  the  following 
subjects,  of  which  one  must  be 
either  the  Code  of  Civil  Procedure 
or  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  Law. 
Candidates  offering  one  subject  only 
are  restricted  to  a  choice  between 
the  two  Law  subjects  specified.) 

1  Instructions,  showing  the  extent  of  the  Examination,  will  be  issned 
to  the  successful  Candidates  as  soon  as  possible  after  the  result  of  the 
Open  Competition  is  declared. 


104 


APPENDIX   B 


Marks 

400 

400 
400 
400 
350 


1.  The  Code  of  Civil  Procedure 

2.  Hindu  and  Muhammadan  Law 

3.  Sanskrit  ^ . 

4.  Arabic      .... 

5.  Persian     .... 

6.  History  of  British  India    . 

7.  Chinese    (for  Candidates   assigned   to  the 

Province  of  Burma  only)         .         .         .         400 

In  this  Examination,  as  in  the  open  competition,  the 
merit  of  the  Candidates  examined  will  be  estimated  by 
marks  (which  will  be  subject  to  deductions  in  the  same  way 
as  the  marks  assigned  at  the  open  competition),  and  the 
number  set  opposite  to  each  subject  denotes  the  greatest 
number  of  marks  that  can  be  obtained  in  respect  of  it. 
The  Examination  will  be  conducted  on  paper  and  viva 
voce,  as  may  be  deemed  necessary.  This  Examination  will 
be  held  at  the  close  of  the  year  of  probation,  and  will  be 
called  the  "Final  Examination." 

10.  The  selected  Candidates  will  also  be  tested  during 
their  probation  as  to  their  proficiency  in  Riding. 

The  Examination  will  be  held  as  follows :  — 

(i)  Shortly  after  the  result  of  the  Open  Competitive 
Examination  hd^  been  declared,  or  at  such  time  or  times 
as  the  Commissioners  may  appoint  during  the  course  of  the 
probationary  year. 

(2)  Again,  at  the  time  of  the  Final  Examination,  Candi- 
dates who  may  fully  satisfy  the  Commissioners  of  their 
ability  to  ride  well  and  to  perform  journeys  on  horseback, 
shall  receive  a  Certificate  which  shall  entitle  them  to  be 
credited  with  200  or  100  marks,  according  to  the  degree  of 
proficiency  displayed,  to  be  added  to  their  marks  in  the 
Final  Examination. 

2  These  subjects  may  not  be  oflFered  by  any  Candidate  who  has  offered 
them  at  the  open  competition. 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA     10$ 

(3)  Candidates  who  fail  to  obtain  this  Certificate,  but 
who  gain  a  Certificate  of  minimum  proficiency  in  riding, 
will  be  allowed  to  proceed  to  India,  but  will  be  subjected 
on  their  arrival  to  such  further  tests  in  riding  as  may  be  pre- 
scribed by  their  Government,  and  shall  receive  no  increase 
to  their  initial  salary  until  they  have  passed  such  tests  to 
the  satisfaction  of  that  Government.  A  Candidate  who  fails 
at  the  end  of  the  year  of  probation  to  gain  at  least  the  Cer- 
tificate of  minimum  proficiency  in  riding,  will  be  liable  to 
have  his  name  removed  from  the  list  of  selected  Candidates. 

11.  The  selected  Candidates  who,  at  the  Final  Examina- 
tion, shall  be  found  to  have  a  competent  knowledge  of  the 
subjects  specified  in  Regulation  9,  and  who  shall  have  sat- 
isfied the  Civil  Service  Commissioners  of  their  eligibility 
in  respect  of  nationality,  age,  health,  character,  and  ability 
to  ride,  shall  be  certified  by  the  said  Commissioners  to  be 
entitled  to  be  appointed  to  the  Civil  Service  of  India,  pro- 
vided they  shall  comply  with  the  regulations  in  force,  at 
the  time,  for  that  Service. 

12.  Persons  desirous  to  be  admitted  as  Candidates,  must 
apply  on  Forms,  which  maybe  obtained  from  "The  Sec- 
retary, Civil  Service  Commission,  London,  S.W.,"  at  any 
time  after  the  ist  December,  in  the  year  previous  to  that 
in  which  the  Examination  is  to  be  held.  The  Forms  must 
be  returned  so  as  to  be  received  at  the  office  of  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners  on  or  before  the  31st  May  (or,  if 
that  date  should  fall  upon  a  Sunday  or  public  holiday,  then, 
on  or  before  the  first  day  thereafter  on  which  their  office  is 
open),  in  the  year  in  which  the  Examination  is  to  be  held. 


The  Civil  Service  Commissioners  are  authorized  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  India  in  Council  to  make  the  follow- 
ing announcements :  — 

(i.)  Selected  Candidates  will  be  allotted  to  the  various 
provinces   upon   a   consideration  of  all  the  circumstances. 


I06  APPENDIX   B 

including  their  own  wishes;  but  the  requirements  of  the 
Public  Service  will  rank  before  every  other  consideration. 

(ii.)  An  allowance  amounting  to  j^xoo  ivill be  given  to  all 
Candidates  who  pass  their  probation  at  one  of  the  Universities 
or  Colleges  which  have  been  approved  by  the  Secretary  of 
State,  viz.,  the  Universities  of  Oxford,  Cambridge,  Dublin, 
Glasgow,  Edinburgh,  St.  Andrews,  and  Aberdeen  ;  Victoria 
University,  Manchester ;  University  College,  London;  and 
King's  College,  London  ;  provided  such  Candidates  shall  have 
passed  the  Final  Examination  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners,  and  shall  have  conducted  themselves 
well  and  complied  with  such  rules  as  may  be  laid  down  for 
the  guidance  of  Selected  Candidates.  The  whole  probation 
must  ordinarily  be  passed  at  the  same  Lnstitution.  Migration 
will  not  be  permitted  except  for  special  reasons  approved  by 
the  Secretary  of  State. 

(iii.)  The  allowance  of  £ioo  will  not  be  paid  to  any 
Selected  Candidate  until  he  has  been  certified  by  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners  to  be  entitled  to  be  appointed  to  the 
Civil  Service  of  Lndia ;  and  every  Certificated  Candidate 
must,  before  receiving  his  allowance,  give  a  written  tmdertak- 
ing  to  refund  the  amount  in  the  event  of  his  failing  to  pro- 
ceed to  India. 

(iv.)  All  Candidates  obtaining  Certificates  will  be  also 
required  to  enter  into  covenants,  by  which,  amongst  other 
things,  they  will  bind  themselves  to  make  such  paytnents  as 
under  the  rules  and  regulations  for  the  time  being  in  force, 
they  may  be  required  to  make  towards  their  own  pensions  or 
for  the  pensions  of  their  families.  The  stamps  payable  on 
these  covenants  amount  to  f[^\. 

(v.)  The  seniority  in  the  Civil  Service  of  India  of  the 
Selected  Candidates  will  be  determined  according  to  the 
order  in  which  they  stand  on  the  list  resulting  from 
the  combined  marks  of  the  Open  Competitive  and  Final 
Examinations. 


EXAMINATIONS  FOR  CIVIL  SERVICE  OF  INDIA     lO/ 

(vi.)  Selected  Candidates  will  be  required  to  report  their 
arrival  in  India  within  such  period  after  the  grant  of  their 
Certificate  of  Qualification  as  the  Secretary  of  State  may  in 
each  case  direct 

(vii.)  Candidates  rejected  at  the  Final  Examination  held 
in  any  year  will  in  no  case  be  allowed  to  present  themselves 
for  re-examination. 


N.B.  — A  Manual  of  Rules  and  Regulations  applicable  to 
members  of  the  covenanted  Civil  Service  of  India  has  been 
compiled  by  permission  of  the  Government  of  India  and 
may  now  be  procured  either  from  Messrs.  A.  Constable 
&  Co.,  2,  Whitehall  Gardens,  S.W.,  or  from  Mr.  E.  A. 
Arnold,  37,  Bedford  Street,  Covent  Garden.     Price  2s.  6d. 

The  Commissioners  have  been  requested  by  the  Secretary 
of  State  for  India  to  draw  the  attention  of  selected  Candi- 
dates to  the  prefatory  note  attached  to  this  manual,  as  it 
is  considered  important  that  it  should  be  clearly  understood 
that  this  compilation  is  not  to  be  regarded  in  any  other  light 
than  that  of  a  collection,  made  for  facility  of  reference,  of 
certain  information  and  rules,  that  it  is  by  no  means 
exhaustive,  and  that  it  is  liable  to  such  modifications  as 
may  from  time  to  time  be  sanctioned  by  competent 
authority. 


APPENDIX   C 

Civil  Service  of  India;  Clerkships  (Class  i) 
IN  THE  Home  Civil  Service;  and  Eastern 
Cadetships 

syllabus  showing  the  extent  of  the  Examination  in  certain  subjects, 

English  Composition.  —  An  Essay  to  be  written  on  one 
of  several  subjects  specified  by  the  Civil  Service  Commis- 
sioners on  their  Examination  Paper. 

English  Language  and  Literature. — The  Examina- 
tion will  be  in  two  parts.  In  the  one  the  Candidates  will 
be  expected  to  show  a  general  acquaintance  with  the  course 
of  English  Literature,  as  represented  (mainly)  by  the  fol- 
lowing writers  in  verse  and  prose,  between  the  reign  of 
Edward  IIL  and  the  accession  of  Queen  Victoria: 

Verse.  —  Chaucer,  Langland,  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Mil- 
ton, Dryden,  Pope,  Gray,  Collins,  Johnson,  Goldsmith, 
Crabbe,  Cowper,  Campbell,  Wordsworth,  Scott,  Byron, 
Coleridge,  Shelley,  Keats. 

Prose.  —  Bacon,  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  Milton,  Cowley, 
Bunyan,  Dryden,  Swift,  Defoe,  Addison,  Johnson,  Burke, 
Scott,  Macaulay  (Essays  and  Biographies). 

A  minute  knowledge  of  the  works  of  these  authors  will 
not  be  looked  for  in  this  part  of  the  Examination,  which 
will,  however,  test  how  far  the  Candidates  have  studied  the 
chief  productions  of  the  greatest  English  writers  in  them- 
selves, and  are  acquainted  with  the  leading  characteristics 
of  their  thought  and  style,  and  with  the  place  which  each 

io8 


SYLLABUS   OF   THE   EXAMINATION  109 

of  them  occupies  in  the  history  of  the  English  Literature. 
Candidates  will  also  be  expected  to  show  that  they  have 
studied  in  these  authors  the  history  of  the  English  Lan- 
guage in  respect  of  its  vocabulary,  syntax,  and  prosody. 

The  other  part  of  the  Examination  will  relate  to  one  of 
the  periods  named  below,  which  will  follow  each  other  year 
by  year  in  the  order  indicated. 

1.  A.D.  1800  to  A.D.  1832. 

(1899)  (Nineteenth  Century  writers  to  the  death  of  Scott.) 

2.  A.D.  1360  to  A.D.  1600. 

(1900)  (Chaucer  to  Spenser.) 

3.  A.D.  1600  to  A.D.  1700. 

(1901)  (Shakespeare  to  Dryden.) 

4.  A.D.  1700  to  A.D.  1800. 

(1902)  (Pope  to  Cowper.) 

The  Examination  in  this  part  will  require  from  Candi- 
dates a  more  minute  acquaintance  with  the  history  of  the 
English  Language  and  Literature,  as  illustrated  in  the  chief 
works  produced  in  each  period,  and  will  be  based  to  a 
considerable  extent,  but  by  no  means  exclusively,  on  cer- 
tain books  specified  each  year  by  the  Commissioners.^ 
The  names  placed  under  the  dates  are  intended  to  suggest 
the  general  character  of  the  literary  development  of  the 
period,  and,  consequently,  the  natural  limits  of  the  Exam- 

1  The  books  for  1899  are :  — 
Moore :  Lalla  Rookh. 
Shelley :  Prometheus  Unbound. 

Byron :  Manfred,  Corsair,  English  Bards  and  Scotch  Reviewers. 
Scott :  Marmion,  Lady  of  the  Lake. 
Sydney  Smith :  Works. 
Landor:  Imaginary  Conversations. 
Coleridge :  Table  Talk,  Aids  to  Reflection. 
Austen :  Emma,  Pride  and  Prejudice. 


no  APPENDIX    C 

ination.  All  the  works  of  Shakespeare,  for  example,  will 
be  regarded  as  falling  within  the  period  1600  to  1700;  all 
the  works  of  Swift  within  the  period  1700  to  1800;  all  the 
works  of  Scott  and  Wordsworth,  and  all  the  works  of 
Macaulay  within  the  period  1800  to  1832. 

French  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translation  from 
French  into  English,  and  from  English  into  French. 
Critical  questions  on  the  French  Language  and  Literature. 

German  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translation  from 
German  into  English,  and  from  English  into  German. 
Critical  questions  on  the  German  Language  and  Literature. 

Latin  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translation  from 
Latin  into  English,  Composition  in  Prose  and  Verse,  or 
(as  an  alternative  for  Verse-Composition)  a  Latin  Essay 
or  Letter.  Critical  questions  on  the  Latin  Language  (in- 
cluding questions  on  Philology)  and  Literature. 

Greek  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translation  from 
Greek  into  English,  Composition  in  Prose  and  Verse,  or 
(as  an  alternative  for  Verse-Composition)  a  Greek  Dia- 
logue or  Oration.  Critical  questions  on  Greek  Language 
(including  questions  on  Philology)  and  Literature. 

Sanskrit  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translation  from 
Sanskrit  into  English,  and  from  English  into  Sanskrit. 
History  of  Sanskrit  Literature  (including  knowledge  of 
such  Indian  history  as  bears  upon  the  subject) :  Sanskrit 
Grammar;  Vedic  Philology. 

Arabic  Language  and  Literature.  —  Translations  as  in 
Sanskrit;  History  of  Arabic  Literature  (including  know- 
ledge of  such  Arabic  History  as  bears  upon  the  subject); 
Arabic  Grammar;  Arabic  Prosody. 

English  History.  —  General  questions  on  English  His- 
tory from  A.D.  800  to  A.D.  1848;  questions  on  the  Consti- 
tutional History  of  England  from  a.d.  800  to  a.d.  1848. 

General  Modern  History.  —  Candidates  may,  at  their 
choice,  be  examined  in  any  one  of  the  following  periods : 


SYLLABUS   OF   THE   EXAMINATION  III 

1.  From  the  accession  of  Charlemagne  to  the  Third 

Crusade. 

(a.d.  800  to  A.D.  1 193.) 

2.  From  the  Third  Crusade  to  the  Diet  of  Worms. 

(a.d.    II93  to  A.D.    1521.) 

3.  From  the  Diet  of  Worms  to  the  Death  of  Louis  XIV. 

(a.d.  1521  to  A.D.  1715.) 

4.  From  the  accession  of  Louis  XV.   to  the  French 

Revolution  of  1848. 

(a.d.  1715  to  A.D.  1848.) 
Periods  3  and  4  will  include  Indian  History. 

Greek  History.  —  Questions  on  the  General  History  of 
Greece  to  the  death  of  Alexander;  questions  on  the  Consti- 
tutional History  of  Greece  during  the  same  period. 

Roman  History.  —  Questions  on  the  General  History 
of  Rome  to  the  death  of  Vespasian;  questions  on  the  Con- 
stitutional History  of  Rome  during  the  same  period. 

In  Greek  and  Roman  History  candidates  will  be  expected 
to  show  a  knowledge  of  the  original  authorities. 

Mathematics.  — Pure  Mathematics : — Algebra,  Geometry 
(Euclid  and  Geometrical  Conic  Sections),  Plane  Trigo- 
nometry, Plane  Analytical  Geometry  (less  advanced  por- 
tions). Differential  Calculus  (Elementary),  Integral  Cal- 
culus (Elementary). 

Applied  Mathematics :  —  Statics,  Dynamics  of  a  Particle, 
Hydrostatics,  Geometrical  Optics;  all  treated  without  the 
aid  of  the  Differential  or  Integral  Calculus. 

Advanced  Mathematics.  —  Pure  Mathematics :  —  Higher 
Algebra,  including  Theory  of  Equations,  Plane  and  Spher- 
ical Trigonometry,  Differential  Calculus,  Integral  Calculus, 
Differential  Equations,  Analytical  Geometry,  Plane  and 
Solid. 

Applied  Mathematics:  —  Statics  including  Attractions, 
Dynamics  of  a  Particle,  Rigid  Dynamics,  Hydrodynamics, 


112  APPENDIX   C 

the  Mathematical  Theory  of  Electricity  and  Magnet- 
ism. 

Political  Economy  and  Economic  History.  —  Candi- 
dates will  be  expected  to  possess  a  knowledge  of  economic 
theory  as  treated  in  the  larger  textbooks,  also  a  knowledge 
of  the  existing  economic  conditions,  and  of  statistical 
methods  as  applied  to  economic  inquiries,  together  with  a 
general  knowledge  of  the  history  of  industry,  land  tenure 
and  economic  legislation  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

Logic  akd  Mental  Philosophy  (Ancient  and  Modern). 
—  Logic  will  include  both  Deductive  and  Inductive  Logic. 
Mental  Philosophy  will  include  Psychology  and  Meta- 
physics. 

Political  Science.  — The  Examination  will  not  be  con- 
fined to  Analytical  Jurisprudence,  Early  Institutions,  and 
Theory  of  Legislation,  but  may  embrace  Comparative  Poli- 
tics, the  History /)f  Political  Theories,  etc. 

Candidates  will  be  expected  to  show  a  knowledge  of 
original  authorities. 

Civil  Service  Commission, 
August,  1898. 


CHAPTER   II 

HOLLAND 1 
HISTORY   OF   THE   SUBJECT 

The  early  history  of  the  method  of  selecting  offi- 
cials for  service  in  the  Dutch  Indies  is  not  unlike 
that  of  British  India.  During  the  seventeenth  and 
eighteenth  centuries  the  colonies  were  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Dutch  East  India  Company,  whose  ser- 
vants, like  those  of  its  English  rival,  were  appointed 
primarily  with  a  view  to  commerce,  and  were  selected 
arbitrarily  by  the  management  of  the  Company,  the 
only  exceptions  being  in  the  case  of  a  few  judicial 
officers  who  were  both  educated  and  appointed  in 
Holland.  Partly,  no  doubt,  on  account  of  the  confu- 
sion into  which  their  whole  colonial  empire  was  thrown 
by  the  wars  of  Napoleon,  the  efforts  to  introduce  a 
better  method  of  choosing  and  training  civil  servants 

^  M.  Chailley-Bert  has  given  an  excellent  description  of  the  method 
of  recruiting  Dutch  colonial  officials  in  his  Report  to  the  Institut  Co- 
lonial International  at  their  meeting  at  the  Hague  in  September, 
1895,  printed  in  the  Compte  Rendu  of  that  meeting.  He  is  also  the 
author  of  a  small  work  entitled  "  La  HoUande  et  les  Fonctionnaires 
Coloniaux "  ;  but  it  is  out  of  print,  and  I  have  been  unable  to  find 
it.  The  statutes  and  ordinances  bearing  upon  the  matter,  printed  in 
French  and  Dutch,  and  preceded  by  a  brief  historical  description  and 
summary  of  the  law  by  Dr.  J.  Spanjaard,  the  director  of  the  Indische 
InUelling  te  Delft,  were  published  by  the  same  society  in  1S95,  "  ^' 
Fonctionnaires  Coloniaux,"  Vol.  II. 

I  H3 


1 14  HOLLAND 

for  the  East  came  somewhat  later  with  the  Dutch 
than  with  the  EngHsh.  The  movement  for  reform 
came,  however,  at  last,  although,  as  is  often  the  case, 
its  first  manifestations  were  feeble  and  uncertain. 
In  181 1  a  few  young  men  were  set  to  study  the 
native  languages  and  institutions  in  Java,  a  practice 
which  was  renewed  in  1819  after  the  termination  of 
the  English  occupation. 

Efforts  to  improve  the  service  were  soon  made  by 
the  home  government  also.  In  order  to  keep  out 
men  who  did  not  possess  the  necessary  qualifications, 
a  Royal  Ordinance  provided  in  1825  that  no  one 
should  be  appointed  to  the  civil  service  in  the  East 
Indies  who  had  not  obtained  from  the  Crown  a 
diploma,  to  be  issued  only  upon  certain  conditions 
designed  to  secure  a  good  standard  of  capacity  and 
morality.  These  provisions  were  not,  however, 
strictly  carried  out,  and  failed  to  accomplish  their 
object. 

A  few  years  later  another  attempt  was  made  in  the 
Indies  to  better  the  special  training  of  the  future 
officials.  An  institution  for  teaching  them  Javanese 
was  established  at  Soerakarta  in  1832  (Nederlandsche 
Staatsblad,  No.  26) ;  but  it  did  not  prove  satisfactory 
in  its  results,  and  after  ten  years  of  life  it  was  sup- 
pressed in  1843.     (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  i.) 

The  Royal  Academy  at  Delft 

The  Government  had,  in  fact,  determined  to  trans- 
fer the  training  of  the  East  Indian  officials  to  Hoi- 


ROYAL  ACADEMY   AT   DELFT  II5 

land,  and  it  made  use  for  that  purpose  of  the  Royal 
Academy  at  Delft,  a  school  recently  created  to  edu- 
cate engineers  and  students  of  commercial  science 
for  the  benefit  of  the  whole  empire.  In  1842  an 
ordinance  provided  that  the  diploma  required  for 
admission  to  the  civil  service  of  the  Indies  should  be 
given  only  to  men  who  had  passed  at  this  school  an 
examination  in  the  geography  and  ethnology  of  the 
Islands,  the  Javanese  and  Malay  languages,  Moham- 
medan law,  etc.  But  the  plan  was  not  altogether 
a  success,  for  the  school  was  unable  to  supply  the 
number  of  oflficials  required,  and  hence  the  Govern- 
ment was  constantly  obliged  to  appoint  to  the  service 
men  who  had  not  passed  the  examination.  Moreover, 
the  institution  fell  into  many  difficulties  of  a  political, 
personal,  and  general  nature.  The  Liberals  com- 
plained that  it  was  a  nursery  of  Conservatives  ;  there 
was  a  quarrel  over  it  between  members  of  the  Cabinet ; 
the  professor  of  Javanese  was  accused  of  subordinat- 
ing everything  else  to  his  own  subject ;  objections 
were  raised  against  educating  engineers  and  Eastern 
civil  servants  in  the  same  school ;  and  finally  the 
Dutch  in  the  East  Indies  complained  bitterly  of  a 
system  which  did  not  permit  any  preparation  for  the 
service  except  in  Holland.  These  causes  forced  a 
change,  and  in  1864  the  institution  at  Delft  was  trans- 
formed into  a  purely  polytechnic  school,  while  an 
entirely  new  system  of  selecting  the  officials  was 
introduced. 


Il6  HOLLAND 

The  Ordinance  of  1864,  and  the  Grand  Examination 
for  Officials 

The  Royal  Ordinance  of  September  10,  1864^  re- 
mains, subject  to  a  number  of  subsequent  modifica- 
tions in  detail,  the  basis  for  the  selection  and  training 
of  officials  for  the  civil  service  of  the  Indies  at  the 
present  day.  It  provided  that  no  one  should  be 
appointed  to  an  administrative  post  in  that  service 
unless  he  had  passed  a  satisfactory  examination,^ 
first,  in  certain  general  subjects,^  —  for  which,  how- 
ever, an  academic  degree,  or  a  diploma  from  a  high 
school,  an  agricultural  or  a  polytechnic  school,  was 
held  to  be  an  equivalent;*  and  second,  (i)  in  the 
history,  geography,  and  ethnology  of  the  Dutch 
Indies ;  (2)  the  public  institutions  of  the  Dutch 
Indies ;  (3)  the  elements  of  Javanese  or  Malay ;  and 
(4)  in  one  or  more  of  the  following  subjects :  the  ele- 
ments of  another  native  language ;  the  religious  laws, 
institutions,  and  customs  of  the  Dutch  Indies ;  survey- 
ing; or  accounting.  For  the  judicial  service  (and  it 
may  be  noted  here  that  the  separation  of  judicial  and 
administrative  work  is  carried  lower  down  by  the 
Dutch  than  by  the  English  in  the  East,  and  that  un- 

1  Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  93. 

'  Posts  with  a  salary  of  less  than  150  florins  a  month  form  a  sort 
of  subordinate  or  clerical  service,  for  which  there  is  an  examination, 
—  at  first  held  both  in  Holland  and  the  Indies,  but  afterwards  only 
in  the  latter,  —  upon  arithmetic,  the  elements  of  the  Dutch  language, 
and  handwriting.    Ordinance,  September  10,  1864,  Art.  6. 

»  /</.,  Art.  4.  *  /</.,  Art.  5. 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  II7 

like  India  there  are  in  the  Dutch  Indies  entirely  sepa- 
rate judicial  and  administrative  services),  for  the 
judicial  service  a  candidate  was  required  to  have  a 
degree  of  Doctor  of  Law,^  and  to  have  passed  the 
second  part  of  the  examination  already  described,  — 
that  containing  the  subjects  relating  to  the  East.^ 
The  commission  which  held  the  examination  was  in- 
structed to  report  the  marks  of  the  candidates  at  the 
examination,^  and  as  these  determined  the  order  of  their 
selection,  the  examination  was  really  competitive. 

This  examination,  or  rather  that  part  of  it  which 
relates  to  Eastern  subjects,  and  for  which  no  diploma 
was  an  equivalent,  came  to  be  known  as  the  Grand 
Examination  for  Officials.  To  appease  the  Dutch 
residents  in  the  East  it  was  to  be  held  both  in  Hol- 
land and  in  the  Indies,*  a  provision  that  has  remained 
in  force  ever  since,  and  will  be  referred  to  again 
when  the  actual  results  of  the  system  are  discussed. 

The  State  School  at  Ley  den 

Now  it  is  evident  that  the  subjects  covered  by  the 
Grand  Examination  are  not  taught  everywhere.  In 
fact,  they  are  of  such  an  unusual  nature  that  they 
could  be  studied  only  in  some  school  especially 
equipped  for  the  purpose;  and,  as  the  school  at 
Delft  was  to  be  given  up,  some  other  institution 
must  be  founded  for  preparing   the  candidates  for 

^  Corresponding,  of  course,  to  our  Bachelor  of  Laws. 

*  Ord.  September  10,  1864,  Art.  3. 

»  Id.,  Art.  8.  ♦  Id.,  Art.  8. 


Il8  HOLLAND 

the  examination.  The  Government  established  there- 
fore at  Leyden,  already  the  seat  of  the  most  famous  of 
the  Dutch  Universities,  a  State  institution  for  instruc- 
tion in  the  geography,  ethnology,  and  languages 
of  the  Indies ;  *  and  a  few  years  later  it  founded  a 
similar  school  at  Batavia  in  Java.  But  instead  of 
giving  to  these  institutions  a  monopoly  of  the  educa- 
tion of  Eastern  officials,  as  had  been  done  in  the 
case  of  the  Royal  Academy  at  Delft,  the  Grand 
Examination  was  thrown  open  to  all  candidates  who 
fulfilled  the  required  conditions  in  regard  to  citizen- 
ship, etc.  No  doubt  the  Government  expected  that 
while  candidates  were  at  liberty  to  prepare  for  the 
examination  in  any  way  they  pleased,  in  practice 
almost  all  of  them  would  study  at  Leyden.  Any 
such  expectation  was,  however,  frustrated  by  the  old 
Dutch  civic  pride. 

The  Municipal  School  at  Delft 

The  city  of  Delft  had  seen  the  officials  for  the 
Indies  trained  within  its  walls  for  a  score  of  years, 
and  did  not  want  to  have  the  privilege  pass  to  another 
place.  Accordingly  in  the  same  year,  1864,  it  founded 
a  municipal  school  of  its  own  (the  Indische  Instelling 
te  Delft),  to  prepare  candidates  for  the  Grand  Exami- 
nation ;  and,  strange  to  say,  its  pupils  were,  from  the 
start,  more  successful  than  their  rivals  from  Leyden. 

1  Act  of  June  10,  1864  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  71).  The  Regula- 
tions of  the  Institute  were  fixed  by  Ordinance  of  July  17,  1864  (Ned. 
Staatsblad,  No.  86). 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  II9 

One  reason  for  this  was  that  the  school  at  Leyden 
was  not  equipped  to  teach  all  the  subjects  in  the  list. 
Another  and  more  enduring  cause  was  that,  owing 
perhaps  to  their  proximity  to  the  University,  the  teach- 
ing of  the  professors  was  somewhat  theoretical,  and 
tended  to  make  scholars  of  the  pupils,  rather  than 
to  fit  them  to  win  high  marks  in  the  competition ; 
whereas  the  aim  of  the  School  at  Delft  was  the  prac- 
tical one  of  getting  as  many  of  its  students  as  pos- 
sible into  the  service.  Its  object,  in  short,  was  to 
fit  its  pupils  effectively  for  the  examination ;  and 
this  it  succeeded  in  doing  so  well  that  in  a  dozen 
years  it  drove  the  School  at  Leyden  out  of  business. 
That  school  was,  in  fact,  abolished  by  statute  in  1876,^ 
and  its  professors  were  transferred  to  the  University. 

The  Municipal  School  at  Leyden 

Again  the  civic  pride  of  Old  Holland  asserted 
itself ;  for  Leyden,  disliking,  as  Delft  had  done  at  an 
earlier  time,  to  lose  a  privilege  once  possessed,  estab- 
lished another  municipal  school  to  prepare  young  men 
for  the  Grand  Examination.  But  the  effort  was  made 
in  vain  ;  for  the  school  at  Delft  had  established  its  rep- 
utation as  the  best  place  to  fit  for  the  examination  so 
firmly,  and  its  professors  had  learned  the  art  so  well, 
that  any  attempt  to  compete  with  it  was  hopeless ; 
and  after  maintaining  the  struggle  for  a  number  of 
years,  the  school  at  Leyden  finally  closed  its  doors  in 
1 89 1.  The  Indiscfie  Instelling  te  Delft  was  thus  left 
Act  of  April  28,  1876,  Art.  125  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  102). 


I20  HOLLAND 

alone  in  the  field ;  and  although  there  appears  to 
have  been  a  single  case  of  a  candidate  who  was  suc- 
cessful at  the  examination  and  obtained  an  appoint- 
ment without  being  prepared  either  there  or  at  Ley- 
den,  yet  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  rule  that  success 
at  the  examination  can  be  attained  only  by  a  training 
at  the  School,  and  in  what  follows  it  will  be  assumed 
that  the  institution  at  Delft  is  the  only  means  of 
preparation  for  the  Grand  Examination. 

Changes  in  the  Ordinance  of  1864.      The  Law  of 
1876,  and  the  Examination  by  the  Faculties 

The  first  important  change  in  the  provisions  of  the 
Ordinance  of  1864  was  made  by  the  Law  of  April  28, 
1876,  for  regulating  higher  education  (Ned.  Staats- 
blad,  No.  102).  Article  92  of  this  act  provided  that 
Doctors  of  Law  who  passed  before  the  appropriate 
Faculties  of  a  University  an  examination  on  colonial 
public  law,  the  Mohammedan  laws  and  customs,  and 
the  language,  geography,  and  ethnology  of  the  East 
Indies,  should  be  quaHfied  for  appointment  either 
to  the  judicial  or  the  administrative  service  of  the 
Indies.  The  object  of  this  change  was  to  permit 
Doctors  of  Law  to  study  Eastern  subjects,  and  pass 
their  examination  upon  them,  at  the  University  of 
Leyden,  instead  of  being  obliged  to  take  the  Grand 
Examination  for  Officials,  and  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  provision  was  contained  in  the  same  statute 
which  abolished  the  State  School  at  Leyden.  In 
fact,  without  the  provision  in  question  that  statute 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  121 

would  have  had  the  effect  of  forcing  all  candidates  for 
the  service  to  attend  the  School  at  Delft.  Until  1883, 
however,  no  ordinance  appears  to  have  been  passed 
to  make  the  Examination  by  the  Faculties,^  as  the 
new  examination  at  the  University  was  called,  an 
effectual  means  of  obtaining  an  appointment.^  More- 
over, in  1892  it  was  again  rendered  nugatory,  so  far 
as  the  administrative  service  is  concerned ;  for  while 
the  provision  of  law  was  left  unrepealed,  an  ordinance 
required  the  Minister  for  the  Colonies  to  announce 
every  year  how  many  of  the  men  who  had  passed 
the  Grand  Examination,  and  how  many  of  those  who 
had  passed  the  Examination  by  the  Faculties,  were 
to  be  appointed,  the  former  to  administrative,  and  the 
latter  to  judicial  positions.^  This  ordinance  went  into 
effect  in  1894,  and  since  that  time  the  Examination 
by  the  Faculties  has  been  a  means  of  entrance  to  the 
judicial  service  alone. 

The  Ordinances  <?/"  1883  and  1893 

The  qualifications  for  appointment  to  the  service 
in  the  East  Indies  have  been  changed  from  time 
to  time  by  various  ordinances.  The  first  of  them  to 
claim  attention  is  that  of  August  29,  1883,*  already 

1  The  details  of  this  examination  are  regulated  by  the  Ordinance 
of  July  28,  1894  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  140). 

2  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Arts.  7,  10,  12,  14  (Ned.  Staatsblad, 
No.  133).  Chailley-Bert  discusses  the  motives  for  and  against  this 
examination,  Compte  Rendu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  396-399. 

'  Ordinance  of  December  23,  1892  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  286). 
*  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  133.)     Subsequently  modified  in  detail  by 
the  Ordinances  of  October  24,  1888  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  156),  Oc- 


122  HOLLAND 

referred  to  in  connection  with  the  Examination  of  the 
Faculties.  This  ordinance  made  some  changes  in 
the  subjects  of  the  Grand  Examination ;  ^  aboUshed 
the  portion  of  that  examination  bearing  upon  general 
studies,  requiring  in  its  place  a  school  diploma  from 
all  candidates ;  ^  drew  a  distinction  between  posts 
in  the  central  government  at  Batavia  and  the  other 
administrative  offices  in  the  Indies,  and  made 
slightly  different  requirements  for  these  two  classes 
of  positions.^ 

The  only  other  ordinance  that  needs  to  be  particu- 
larly mentioned  is  that  of  July  20,  1893  (Ned.  Staats- 
blad,  No.  117),  by  which  the  provisions  relating  to  the 
Grand  Examination  were  altered  and  codified.  The 
examination  itself  was  divided  into  two  parts,  the 
earlier  or  preliminary  part  being  supposed  to  involve 
a  general  view  of  the  subject  and  requiring  a  year  of 
preparation,  while  the  second  or  final  part  is  more 
searching,  and  requires  a  couple  of  additional  years  of 
study.  This  fell  in  well  enough  with  the  course  in 
the  School  at  Delft,  which  had  already  been  length- 
ened in  1 89 1  from  two  years  to  three.  The  ordi- 
nance was  followed  on  July  3 1  by  a  Resolution  of  the 
Minister  of  the  Colonies  establishing  the  Regulations 
and  Programme  for  the  Grand  Examination.  A 
translation  of  these,  together  with  the  codified  Pro- 
visions annexed  to  the  ordinance,  and  incorporating 

tober  24,  1889  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  131),  and  December  23,  1892 
(Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  286). 

1  Art.  I.  "  Art.  2.  «  Arts.  7,  8. 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  1 23 

in  each  case  the  subsequent  minor  alterations,  are 
printed  as  an  appendix  to  this  chapter. 

SUMMARY    OF    EXISTING    RULES 

So  much  for  the  history  of  the  subject.  In  con- 
sidering the  existing  conditions  the  simplest  course  is 
to  take  up  separately  the  different  branches  of  the 
service,  only  prefacing  the  subject  with  three  general 
remarks.  The  first  of  these  is  that  the  Government 
has  reserved  to  itself  the  right,  in  special  cases  when 
the  public  interest  demands  it,  to  dispense  with  the 
qualifications  required  by  the  various  ordinances,^  — 
a  power  which  is  very  rarely  exercised  in  practice, 
and  then  only  in  connection  with  some  new  office 
requiring  peculiar  information.  The  second  is  that 
no  one  is  sent  to  the  Indies  unless  his  physical  condi- 
tion has  been  passed  upon  by  a  medical  officer 
of  the  Army ;  and  unless  he  also  produces  a  certifi- 
cate of  good  morals  and  good  conduct  from  the 
authorities  of  his  place  of  residence,^  —  a  guarantee 
which  means  in  fact  nothing,  except  that  he  has 
never  been  sent  to  jail.  The  third  is  that  the  can- 
didate must  be  a  Dutch  citizen,  or  a  native  of  the 
Dutch  Indies,  or  have  been  born  in  the  Dutch  Indies 
of  parents  domiciled  there.^  "* 

The  Judicial  Service 
To  be  admitted  to  this  service  *  a  candidate  must 
have  obtained  a  degree  of  Doctor  of  Law  and  have  — 

^  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  19.  2  jj  ^  p^   j^ 

»  Ord.  Sept.  lo,  1864,  Art.  i.  *  Ord.  Aug.  29,  1883,  Art.  9. 


124  HOLLAND 

(a)  Passed  the  Examination  of  the  Faculties,  or 
(d)  Passed  the  Grand  Examination  for  Officials  or 
(c)  Practised   law   in   the    Dutch    Indies   for  four 

years. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  persons  with  the  qualifications 
{d)  and  (c)  are  never  appointed,  so  that  practically  the 
judicial  service  is  recruited  entirely  from  Doctors 
of  Law  who  have  passed  the  Examination  of  the 
Faculties  at  Leyden.  This  examination  covers  the 
same  subjects  as  the  Grand  Examination  for  Officials, 
except  that  the  history  of  the  Indies  is  omitted.  As 
to  its  comparative  severity  there  is  a  difference  of 
opinion.  The  men  at  Delft  say  that  it  is  easier  than 
their  own ;  while  the  men  at  Leyden  say  that  it  is 
very  nearly  the  same ;  and  the  fact  would  seem  to  be 
that  it  is  somewhat,  but  not  much,  easier.  The  regu- 
lar course  of  preparation  for  it  is  two  years,  although 
a  very  clever  student  can  sometimes  pass  it  after  one 
year's  study.  But  in  comparing  it  with  the  three 
years'  course  of  training  at  Delft,  we  must  remember 
that  the  students  at  Leyden  start  upon  their  Oriental 
studies  with  the  advantage  of  a  much  higher  educa- 
tion. 

The  Examination  of  the  Faculties  at  Leyden,  un- 
like the  Grand  Examination  for  Officials,  is  con- 
ducted, not  by  a  commission  appointed  by  the  State, 
but  by  the  professors  at  the  University,  and  the  rank 
of  the  candidates  is  arranged  by  them,  upon  their 
general  opinion  of  the  student's  proficiency,  the  rank 
thus  obtained  determining  the  order  of  selection  for 


EXAMINATION   FOR   THE  ,  SERVICE  12$ 

the  service.^  There  is  a  provision  that  when  sent 
to  the  East  they  may  be  granted  an  allowance 
for  their  equipment  ;2  but  as  a  matter  of  fact 
there  are  only  five  or  six  vacancies  in  the  service 
annually,  and  the  Government  has  not  found  it  nec- 
essary during  the  last  few  years  to  send  any  aspirants 
for  judicial  office  to  the  East  at  all.  It  has  become 
the  habit  for  the  men  who  pass  the  Examination  of 
the  Faculties  —  and  there  are  only  about  half  a 
dozen  of  them  a  year  —  to  go  at  their  own  expense 
to  the  Indies,  where  they  obtain  before  long  a  situa- 
tion as  clerk  of  court,  and  ultimately  an  appointment 
as  judge. 

There  has  been  a  complaint  that  the  system  pro- 
duces few  men  of  sufficient  capacity  for  the  highest 
courts  in  the  Indies;  and  it  is  sometimes  said  that 
the  Doctors  of  Law  who  prepare  themselves  for  ser- 
vice in  the  East  are  not  equal  to  those  who  prefer  a 
career  at  the  bar  at  home.  But  this  last  statement  is 
disputed  by  other  people,  who  maintain  that  the  men 
that  go  to  the  Indies  are  a  good  average  of  the  Doc- 
tors of  Law.  However  this  may  be,  the  system 
appears  to  produce  on  the  whole  satisfactory  results, 
and  no  serious  efforts  are  being  made  to  change  it. 

*  Article  12  of  the  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  provides  that  the 
candidates  shall  be  ranked  by  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  according 
to  the  information  that  he  can  obtain  of  their  proficiency,  and  that 
this  rank  shall  determine  the  order  of  their  selection  for  the  service. 

*  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  13. 


126  HOLLAND 

The  Administrative  Service 

Leaving  out  of  account  the  inferior  clerical  posi- 
tions, the  requirements  for  which  have  already  been 
described,  the  administrative  service  in  the  Indies, 
while  not  separated  into  strictly  distinct  services,  is 
divided  for  the  purpose  of  recruitment  into  two 
branches.  The  qualifications  for  these  are  legally 
different,  but  in  practice  they  are  really  the  same. 

The  General  Administration  of  the  Interior 

To  be  admitted  to  this  branch  of  the  service  a 
candidate  must  have  passed  either  ^  — 

I.  The  Grand  Examination  for  Officials,  or 

II.  The  Examination  of  the  Faculties. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  appointments  are  given  only 
to  men  who  have  passed  the  Grand  Examination. 

The  Central  Administrative  Offices  at  Batavia 

To  be  admitted  to  this  branch  of  the  service  a 
candidate  must  either  ^  — 

(«)  Have  passed  the  Grand  Examination  for  Offi- 
cials or  the  Examination  of  the  Faculties,  or 

{b)  Be  a  Doctor  of  Law,  or 

{c)  Be  a  Doctor  of  Political  Science. 

But  the  ordinance  provides  that  a  preference  shall 
be  given  to  {a)  over  {h)  and  {c\  and  in  practice  the 
only  men  appointed  are  those  who  have  passed  the 
Grand  Examination. 

1  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  7.  '  Id.,  Art.  8. 


EXAMINATION   FOR   THE   SERVICE  12/ 

THE   GRAND    EXAMINATION   FOR    OFFICIALS 

The  Grand  Examination  is,  therefore,  in  fact  the 
only  gateway  to  the  administrative  service,  and  hence  it 
merits  careful  study.  It  may  be  passed  either  in  Hol- 
land or  in  the  Indies ;  but  as  the  two  are  supposed  to 
be  equivalent,  the  remarks  made  here  will  be  limited 
to  the  examination  in  Holland,  reserving  for  a  later 
period  a  comment  upon  the  results  obtained  on  the 
other  side  of  the  world.  It  may  be  noticed,  however, 
in  passing  that  while  the  proportion  of  new  members 
admitted  to  the  service  in  each  place  varies  some- 
what with  circumstances,  as  a  rule  about  two-thirds 
are  recruited  in  Holland  and  about  one-third  in  the 
East. 

The  Examining  Commission 

This  body  is  composed  of  about  a  score  of  mem- 
bers, appointed  each  year  by  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies,  and  among  them  are  always  named  the 
instructors  in  the  school  at  Delft.  In  fact.  Dr. 
Spanjaard,  who  has  long  been  the  Director  of  the 
school,  is  regularly  appointed  Secretary  of  the  Com- 
mission. At  their  first  meeting  the  examiners  form 
from  their  own  number  as  many  sub-committees  as 
there  are  subjects  of  examination,  each  of  them  con- 
sisting, as  a  rule,  of  the  instructor  in  the  subject  at 
the  school,  of  a  professor  from  one  of  the  Universi- 
ties, and  of  a  former  member  of  the  civil  service  of 
the  Indies.  The  examinations,  which  are  held  at 
The  Hague  near  the  end  of  June,  are  actually  con- 


128  HOLLAND 

ducted  by  the  sub-committees,  but  when  their  work 
is  ended  the  whole  Commission  meets  once  more  to 
approve  their  conclusions  and  prepare  its  report. 
This  is  published  every  year,  and  contains  the  marks 
of  each  of  the  candidates,  their  final  rank,  the  exami- 
nation papers,  so  far  as  the  examination  is  in  writing, 
some  comments  on  the  results  in  each  subject,  and 
any  suggestion  the  Commission  desires  to  make. 

Qualifications  for  the  Examination 

By  the  Ordinance  of  July  20,  1893,  the  examination 
was  divided  into  two  parts,  and  save  for  some  tempo- 
rary exceptions,  made  to  prevent  hardships  from  a 
change  of  system,^  no  candidate  who  has  not  passed 
the  first  part  is  allowed  to  offer  himself  for  the  sec- 
ond. Nor  can  a  candidate  offer  himself  for  the  first 
part  unless  he  has  graduated  from  a  secondary 
school  in  Holland  or  the  Indies  or  from  the  State 
Agricultural,  Polytechnic,  or  Military  School,  or  has 
passed  the  preliminary  examination  at  the  State 
Agricultural  School,  or  is  qualified  to  enter  a  Uni- 
versity, or  has  passed  one  of  the  examinations  there. 
The  list  of  these  qualifications  is  large,^  and  one 
might  expect  as  a  result  that  there  would  be 
among  the  young  men  a  considerable  variety  of  train- 
ing, but  such  is  not  in  fact  the  case.     The  Military 

1  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1895.     (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  153.) 
*  See  Art.  2  of  the  Rules  annexed  to  the  Ordinance  of  July  20, 
1893,  i"  t^^  appendix  to  this  chapter. 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE 


129 


and  Agricultural  Schools  furnish  few  candidates ;  the 
Universities  almost  none ;  and  as  the  course  in  the 
gymnasia  or  classical  schools  is  six  years,  while  that 
of  the  high  schools  is  only  five,  the  vast  majority  of 
candidates  come  from  the  latter.  The  following 
table  taken  from  the  Reports  of  the  Examining 
Commission  shows  the  educational  quahfications  of 
the  candidates  during  the  three  years  1895- 1898  :  — 


High 

High 

Full  Course 

Prep.  Course 

Schools 

Schools 

Gym- 

m 

m 

Total. 

in 

in  the 

nasium. 

Agric. 

Agric. 

Holland. 

Indies. 

School. 

School. 

1896  . 

88 

3 

I 

I 

0 

92 

1897  . 

52 

II 

I 

I 

I 

66 

1898  . 

25 

4 

I 

I 

0 

31 

In  considering  these  figures  it  must  be  remembered 
that  they  represent  all  the  general  education  that  the 
candidates  receive,  because  from  the  moment  they 
enter  the  School  at  Delft  their  whole  time  is  devoted 
to  the  study  of  subjects  relating  solely  to  the  East 
Indies. 

The  extent  of  the  previous  education  required  has 
no  doubt  some  effect  on  the  quality  of  the  men  who 
offer  themselves  as  candidates.  In  fact,  they  come 
mainly  from  the  middle  class,^  though  a  few  aristo- 
cratic names  appear  among  them ;  and  in  calibre 
they  are  said  not  to  be  equal  on  the  average  to  the 

^  A  large  part  of  them  are  the  sons  of  Indian  and  other  officials. 
K 


130  HOLLAND 

men  who  prepare  themselves  at  the  Universities  for 
the  law  or  for  medicine. 


Absence  of  a  Limit  of  Age 

Curiously  enough,  there  are  no  limits  of  age  either 
for  passing  the  examination  or  for  entering  the  ser- 
vice ;  and  hence  although  most  of  the  candidates  are 
between  nineteen  and  twenty-three,  they  are  some- 
times as  young  as  seventeen,  and  occasionally,  on 
the  other  hand,  very  old,  in  one  case  it  seems  no  less 
than  forty-eight.i  The  absence  of  a  limit  of  age  has 
one  strange  result.  It  gives  a  candidate  the  oppor- 
tunity to  try  the  examination  more  than  once ;  ^  and 
since  in  the  appointments  to  the  service  in  any  year  a 
preference  is  given  to  the  men  who  have  passed  the 
examination  in  that  year  over  those  who  took  it  in  a 
previous  year,^  it  is  not  uncommon  even  for  candi- 
dates who  have  succeeded  in  passing  the  examination 
once  to  try  it  again  the  next  year,  if  they  have  not 
obtained  a  rank  high  enough  to  be  among  the  few 
to  receive  appointments.  Chailley-Bert  gives  some 
striking  examples  of  this,  and  among  them  is  one 
of  a  man  who  passed  successfully  four  times  before  he 
obtained  an  appointment,^  the  reason  for  such  persist- 

^  Chailley-Bert,  Compte  Rendu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  369-370. 

2  The  Ordinance  of  December  15,  1897  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No.  261), 
forbade  any  one  to  offer  himself  for  the  first  part  of  the  examination 
more  than  twice,  but  there  is  no  such  restriction  for  the  second  part. 

8  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  il. 

*  Op.  cit.,  pp.  381-382. 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  I3I 

ence  being,  of  course,  the  fact  that  the  instruction  at 
the  school  leads  to  no  other  career,  and  if  a  man 
fails  of  appointment  he  has  not  only  thrown  away 
several  years,  but  is  very  old  to  take  up  anything 
else.  The  recent  Reports  of  the  Examining  Com- 
mission show  that  in  1897  twenty-seven  men  suc- 
ceeded in  passing  the  examination,  of  whom  only  ten 
were  appointed,  while  of  the  other  seventeen  no  less 
than  eight  tried  again  the  next  year.  Of  these  last 
five  were  among  the  ten  who  secured  appointments 
in  1898.  Such  facts  must  be  taken  into  account  in 
speaking  of  the  length  of  time  actually  consumed  in 
preparation  for  the  civil  service  of  the  East.  Thus, 
of  the  ten  men  sent  to  the  Indies  in  1898  five  had 
devoted  three  years  to  technical  Oriental  studies, 
four  had  devoted  four  years,  and  one  (who  had  taken 
the  examination  twice  before)  had  devoted  five  years. 
No  doubt  this  proportion  is  unusually  large,  but  there 
are  always  a  certain  number  of  candidates  waiting  at 
Delft  from  year  to  year,  like  the  impotent  folk  at  the 
pool  of  Bethesda. 

The  only  other  qualification  that  needs  to  be  men- 
tioned here  is  the  fee  of  twenty-five  gulden,  or  about 
ten  dollars,  which  every  candidate  is  obliged  to  pay 
for  each  part  of  the  examination.  This  was  required 
by  the  Ordinance  of  October  19,  1896,  in  order  to  dis- 
courage men  from  offering  themselves  who  had  no 
serious  intention  of  passing  the  examination. 


132  HOLLAND 

The  Programme  of  the  Examination 

The  examination  itself,  whether  taken  all  at  one 
time,  as  it  was  before  1893,  or  divided,  as  it  has  been 
since  that  time  into  a  preliminary  and  a  final  part, 
has  retained  one  essential  characteristic.  It  has 
always  been  entirely  technical ;  that  is,  it  has  related 
exclusively  to  matters  directly  connected  with  the 
East  Indies. 

The  First  Part 

The  Preliminary,  or,  as  it  is  officially  called,  the 
First  Part  of  the  examination  is  supposed  to  be  taken 
after  one  year  of  study.  It  covers,  (i)  the  geog- 
raphy, (2)  the  general  principles  of  legislation,  and 
(3)  an  introduction  to  the  religious  laws,  institutions, 
and  customs,  of  the  Dutch  Indies,  and  the  elements 
of  the  (4)  Malay  and  (5)  Javanese  languages.^  It  is 
oral  for  all  the  subjects  except  the  two  languages, 
and  for  these  it  is  confined  to  a  written  translation 
into  Dutch  of  an  easy  piece  of  prose.  This  examina- 
tion is  in  no  sense  competitive.  A  candidate  must 
pass  it  before  he  can  offer  himself  for  the  Second 
Part,  but  the  rank  with  which  he  passes  it  has  no 
effect  upon  his  subsequent  prospects.  To  pass  it, 
he  must  obtain  a  total  of  twenty-two  marks  out  of 
a  possible  maximum  of  fifty.  This  does  not  seem 
a  very  high  requirement,  but  the  difficulty  of  an 
examination  really  depends  upon  the  severity  of  the 

^  See  the  ProgTamme  in  the  appendix  to  this  chapter. 


EXAMINATION  FOR  THE  SERVICE  133 

marking,  and  the  actual  proportion  of  the  candidates 
at  this  examination  who  succeed  in  getting  through 
is  not  on  the  average  much  above  one-half.^ 

The  First  Part  of  the  examination  was  mainly 
intended  to  insure,  on  the  part  of  candidates  for  ser- 
vice in  the  Indies,  a  general  knowledge  of  the  sub- 
jects in  which  they  were  afterward  to  prepare  them- 
selves in  greater  detail.  It  has  been  found,  however, 
that  what  they  have  learned  before  the  first  examina- 
tion is  often  largely  forgotten  by  the  time  the  final 
one  takes  place ;  and  in  fact,  the  opinion  appears  to 
be  nearly  universal  that  the  creation  of  the  prelimi- 
nary examination,  together  with  the  lengthening  of 
the  course  of  study  at  the  School  to  three  years, 
which  was  done  at  about  the  same  time,  was  a  mistake. 

The  Second  Part 

The  Final  or  Second  Part  of  the  examination  is 
supposed  to  be  taken  after  two  more  years  of  study. 
It  covers,^  (i)  the  history,  (2)  the  geography  and  eth- 
nology, (3)  the  religious  laws,  institutions,  and  cus- 
toms, and  (4)  the  political  institutions  of  the  Dutch 
Indies,  and  (5)  the  Malay  and  (6)  Javanese  languages. 
These  subjects  are  required.  Examinations  are,  more- 
over, held  in  other  native  languages,  but  they  are  op- 
tional, and  their  effect  is  solely  to  increase  the  total 
marks  of  the  candidate,  and  thus  raise  his  rank  for 

*  During  the  five  years  from  the  time  this  examination  was  estab- 
lished through  1898,  164  men  passed  out  of  295  who  tried. 
'  See  the  Programme  in  the  appendix  to  this  chapter. 


134  HOLLAND 

the  purpose  of  competition.  The  examination  is  both 
oral  and  in  writing  for  each  subject,  and,  except  in  the 
languages,  the  paper  for  each  written  examination 
consists  of  two  alternative  questions  of  a  broad  char- 
acter, one  or  the  other  of  which  the  candidate  must 
answer  elaborately. 

The  Second  Part  is  nominally,  like  the  first, 
merely  a  pass  examination,  and  every  man  who  does 
sufficiently  well  in  it  receives  a  certificate  which  quali- 
fies him  for  appointment  to  the  civil  service  in  the 
Indies ;  but  as  the  number  of  vacancies  in  the  ser- 
vice is  always  smaller  than  the  number  of  candidates 
who  succeed  at  the  examination,  and  the  ordinance 
provides  that  those  candidates  shall  be  selected  in  the 
order  of  their  rank,^  the  examination  is  virtually  com- 
petitive. The  system  of  marking  is,  therefore,  of 
prime  importance.  The  maximum  mark  in  each  sub- 
ject is  lO,  and  the  Regulations  prescribe  that  o  shall 
indicate  total  ignorance,  i  and  2  bad ;  3  and  4  unsatis- 
factory, 5  and  6  satisfactory,  7  and  8  good,  and  9  and 
10  excellent.  On  the  question  of  passing  the  exam- 
ination the  required  subjects  are  alone  considered. 
Of  these  there  are  six,  and  hence  the  maximum  total 
of  marks  in  them  is  60.  Now  if  a  candidate  fails  to 
obtain  a  total  of  27,  or  (in  order  to  insure  some 
knowledge  of  every  branch),  if  he  gets  o,  i,  or  2, 
in  any  subject,  or  3  or  4  in  more  than  one  subject,  he 
is  rejected.'^    If,  on  the  other  hand,  he  gets  5  in  every 

1  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  Ii. 

2  This  seems  tautologous;  for  if  a  candidate  gets  no  o,  1,  2,  and 


EXAMINATION   FOR   THE   SERVICE  135 

subject,  he  is  passed  as  a  matter  of  course;  and  if  his 
mark  neither  passes  nor  rejects  him  under  these  two 
rules,  the  Commission  decides  by  vote  whether  he  shall 
pass  or  not.  It  is  only  in  case  he  succeeds  in  passing 
that  the  optional  subjects  can  be  counted  in  deter- 
mining his  rank.  Formerly  he  could  offer  as  many 
native  languages  for  this  purpose  as  he  pleased, 
and  count  any  marks,  not  lower  than  5,  which  he 
received  in  them.  But  it  was  felt  by  the  Commis- 
sion that  this  gave  a  disproportionate  credit,  and  in 
1897  it  was  provided  that  the  privilege  should  be 
limited  to  substituting  the  mark  in  an  optional  lan- 
guage (if  not  less  than  5)  for  a  lower  mark  in 
Javanese,  a  change  which  has  naturally  resulted  in 
diminishing  the  extent  to  which  the  optional  languages 
are  offered. 

The  Proportion  of  Failures 

In  discussing  the  proportion  of  men  who  succeed, 
one  must  distinguish  between  success  in  passing  the 
examination,  and,  what  is  a  very  different  thing,  suc- 
cess in  getting  a  position  on  the  rank  list  high 
enough  to  win  an  appointment.  The  proportion  of 
candidates  at  the  examination  who  succeed  in  pass- 
ing it  naturally  varies  a  good  deal  from  year  to  year, 
but  on  the  average  it  runs  from  two-thirds  to  three- 
quarters.  One  might  suppose  that  the  institution  of 
the   preliminary   examination   would    have   had   the 

not  more  than  one  3  or  4,  his  mark  in  the  six  subjects  must  add  up 
to  more  than  27. 


136  HOLLAND 

effect  of  cutting  off  at  an  early  period  a  number  of 
the  least  competent  men,  and  would  thus  have  in- 
creased the  proportion  of  successes  among  those  who 
offered  themselves  for  the  final  examination ;  but  this 
has  not  been  the  case,  probably  because  the  final 
examination  has  been  made  correspondingly  more 
severe. 

The  proportion  of  candidates  at  the  examination 
who  actually  obtain  appointments  is  very  much 
smaller,  and  varies  in  even  a  greater  degree.  Dur- 
ing the  years  from  1 879  to  1 88 1  the  number  of  men 
sent  to  the  East  averaged  about  thirty  a  year,  but  a 
little  later,  from  1885  to  1888,  it  fell  to  only  four  a 
year;  and  thus  in  the  years  of  plenty  nearly  two- 
thirds  of  the  men  who  passed  the  examination  got 
places,  and  in  1895  as  many  as  twenty-eight  out  of 
thirty-one  ;  while  in  the  years  of  famine  less  than 
one-seventh  of  those  who  passed  were  appointed. 
What  is  worse,  the  Colonial  Office  was  not  formerly 
in  the  habit  of  announcing  beforehand  the  number  of 
vacancies  to  be  filled,  and  the  result  was  that  prepa- 
ration for  the  service  was  a  lottery  with  many  blanks, 
even  for  students  who  had  passed  very  good  exam- 
inations. All  this  is  better  now,  for  the  number  of 
men  selected  each  year  is  less  variable  than  formerly, 
ten,  that  is,  about  one-third  of  the  men  who  pass  the 
examination,  having  been  appointed  annually  for  the 
last  few  years.  Moreover,  after  many  appeals  from 
the  Director  of  the  School  the  Minister  of  the  Colo- 
nies has  taken  up  the  practice  of  announcing  well  in 


EXAMINATION   FOR  THE   SERVICE  1 37 

advance  the  number  of  vacancies  that  will  occur. 
Thus,  in  April,  1899,  the  government  organ  declared 
not  only  that  ten  appointments  would  be  made  in  the 
current  year,  but  also  that  ten  would  be  made  in 
1900,  and  that  none  would  be  made  in  1901. 

POSITIONS  RESERVED  FOR  MEMBERS  OF  THE  SERVICE 

The  administrative  offices  to  which  the  Grand 
Examination  leads,  and  which  are  reserved  exclu- 
sively for  persons  recruited  in  this  way,^  are  pre- 
scribed in  Arts.  7  and  8  of  the  Ordinance  of 
August  29,  1883.  They  include  all  the  superior 
offices  held  by  the  white  men  in  the  general  admin- 
istration except  those  of  the  Governor  General  and 
his  Council,  and  almost  all  those  in  the  central  office 
at  Batavia,  except  the  Heads  of  Departments.^ 
Moreover,  even  the  excepted  places,  while  not  re- 
served for  members  of  the  regular  civil  service,  are 
often  conferred  upon  them. 

The  selected  candidates  are  allowed  400  florins 
for  their  equipment,  and  are  immediately  despatched 

^  Save  for  the  exceptional  right  of  the  Government  to  make  out- 
side appointments  in  special  cases,  —  a  right  almost  never  used. 
Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  19. 

*  The  offices  recited  in  the  Ordinance  are :  Art.  7,  "  Controller  in 
the  Interior  Administration,  Assistant  Resident,  Provincial  Secretary, 
Resident,  and  Governor  in  the  Dutch  Indies"  ;  Art.  8,  "  Referendar 
and  Secretary,  in  the  Department  of  General  Civil  Administration  of 
the  Dutch  Indies,  in  the  General  Secretariat  and  in  the  Council  of  the 
Indies,  including  the  posts  of  Secretary  General  and  Government 
Secretary."  From  this  last  list,  the  position  of  Referendar  in  the 
Department  of  Accounts  was  excepted  by  the  Ordinance  of  December 
IS.  1897. 


138  HOLLAND 

to  the  Indies  at  the  expense  of  the  State.  Nomi- 
nally the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  does  not  ap- 
point them  to  the  service,  but  merely  places  them 
at  the  disposition  of  the  Governor  General ;  and 
although  this  amounts  in  fact  to  the  same  thing, 
their  connection  with  the  home  authorities  ceases  on 
their  departure,  and  henceforth  they  are  dependent 
only  on  the  government  of  the  Indies.  On  their 
arrival  they  are  placed  under  the  charge  of  a  local 
administrative  official  to  learn  their  business,  and  are 
kept  there  until  they  are  competent  to  hold  a  post 
and  begin  their  career. 

THE    INDISCHE    INSTELLING   TE    DELFT 

This  School  was  founded,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1864 
as  a  city  enterprise  to  prepare  candidates  for  the 
Grand  Examination,  and  it  remained  a  purely  munic- 
ipal institution  until  1893,  when  the  State  granted 
it  a  subsidy  and  assumed  in  return  a  certain  control 
over  its  management.  Under  the  present  arrange- 
ments the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  not  only  appoints 
a  college  of  six  curators  who  act  as  visitors  on  the 
part  of  the  State,  but  all  the  most  important  acts  in 
the  government  of  the  School  require  his  approval. 
The  institution,  therefore,  is  now  under  an  anomalous 
dual  control  by  the  City  and  the  State.  According 
to  the  practice  actually  followed  the  Director  makes 
a  report  every  year  to  the  authorities  of  the  city,  who 
appoint  the  professors  and  arrange  the  programme 
of  the  course,  on  the  recommendation  of  the  Director 


COLONIAL   SCHOOL   AT   DELFT  1 39 

and  Faculty ;  *  subject,  however,  in  each  case  to  the 
approval  of  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies.  The  School 
has  a  Faculty  of  seven  professors  (including  the 
Director),  one  lecturer,  and  one  privaat  docent. 
It  occupies  a  well-equipped  building  in  the  town,  and 
is  furnished  with  a  library  and  a  fine  East  Indian 
ethnological  collection,  parts  of  which  are  admirably 
displayed  over  the  walls  of  the  lecture  rooms,  so  that 
the  students  have  the  benefit  of  a  constant  Eastern 
environment.  The  institution  is,  of  course,  intended 
primarily  for  candidates  for  the  civil  service  of  the 
Indies ;  and  although  provision  is  made  for  admitting 
future  missionaries  and  others  to  the  study  of  special 
subjects,  their  number  has  been  small.  At  present 
there  are  on  the  average  about  two  such  special 
students  a  year,  usually  officials  from  the  Indies  on 
leave  of  absence,  who  want  to  perfect  themselves  in 
some  particular  branch  of  study.  The  total  number 
of  students  at  the  School  has  varied  a  great  deal, 
mainly  in  accordance  with  the  prospect  of  vacancies 
in  the  service.  Thus  in  the  year  1 896-1 897,  shortly 
after  twenty-eight  men  had  been  sent  to  the  East,  the 
total  number  in  the  School  was  177;  while  in  1898, 
the  entering  class  for  the  full  course  was  reduced  to 
seven  by  the  announcement  that  no  appointments 
would  be  made  in  1901,  the  year  when  the  men  in 
that  class  would  naturally  graduate.  Of  late  years 
the  average  number  in  a  class  has  been  not  far  from 
fifty.     It  may  be  added  that  an  annual  fee  of  20Q 

^  Reglement  voor  de  Indische  Instelling,  Arts.  3,  5. 


I40  HOLLAND 

florins,  or  about  ;^8o,  must  be  paid  by  each  student  in 
advance,  except  in  the  rare  instances  where  it  is  re- 
mitted by  the  municipal  authorities. 

The  Course  of  Study  at  the  School 

At  first  the  School  had  courses  of  both  two  and 
four  years,  the  latter  being  intended  for  those  who 
were  pursuing  at  the  same  time  their  studies  at  a 
high  school;  but  although  this  arrangement  was 
popular  for  a  couple  of  years,  the  four  years'  course 
was  soon  deserted,  and  was  abolished  altogether  in 
1872.  From  that  time  the  two  years'  course  was 
maintained  until  1891,  when  it  was  lengthened  to 
three  years. 

The  course  of  study  is  adapted  entirely  to  the 
requirements  of  the  Grand  Examination,  and  no  sub- 
ject is  taught  which  does  not  find  a  place  among 
them.  Hence  the  teaching  at  the  School,  like  the 
examination  itself,  has  a  purely  technical  character, 
and  the  subjects,  which  are  not,  perhaps,  such  as  to 
have  in  themselves  a  high  educational  value,  are 
studied  not  for  the  sake  of  training  the  mind,  but 
rather  with  a  view  of  getting  the  highest  possible 
mark  in  a  competition.  Since  the  examination  has 
been  divided  into  two  parts,  the  first  year  at  the 
school  has  been  devoted  solely  to  a  preparation  for 
the  First  Part.  More  than  one-third  of  the  whole 
time  is  given  to  the  codes,^  the  rest  of  the  course 

^  The  programme  of  studies  for  the  year  1898-1899  was  as 
follows :  — 


COLONIAL   SCHOOL  AT   DELFT 


141 


being  of  an  introductory  nature,  and  leading  up  to 
the  studies  of  the  later  years.  In  fact,  the  only  sub- 
jects, except  the  codes,  to  which  much  time  is  allotted 
are  the  elements  of  the  Malay  and  Javanese  lan- 
guages. The  second  and  third  years  are  devoted  in 
the  same  way  exclusively  to  preparing  for  the  Second 
Part  of  the  examination.  But  here  the  instruction 
goes  very  fully  into  the  details  of  the  various  topics, 
as  may  be  seen  from  the  description  of  the  different 
courses.^  From  these  descriptions,  and  from  the 
Tabular  View  of  the  School,  it  appears  that  in  the 
languages  there  are  separate  courses  for  the  second 
and  third  years,  but  that  in  each  of  the  other  subjects 
there  are  alternating  courses,  so  that  the  second  and 
third  year  men  always  take  the  same  course  together. 
Such  a  system  pursued  in  comparatively  limited  fields 


Subjects. 

Hours  Per  Week. 

I  St  Year. 

2d  Year. 

3d  Year. 

Codes  of  the  Dutch  Indies   .... 
Geography  and  Ethnology  of  the  Dutch  Indies 
Religious  Laws,  Institutions,  and  Customs  of 

the  Dutch  Indies 

Political  Institutions  of  the  Dutch  Indies 

History  of  the  Dutch  Indies 

Malay  Language  ...... 

Javanese  Language 

Four  other  native  languages  —  each     . 

6 

I 

2* 

3 
5 

3 
3 

5 
3 
3 
3 

2 

3 

3 
5 
3 
3 
4 
3 

♦  Only  one  hour  a  week  in  September,  October,  and  May. 
*  Almanak  van  bet  Indologische  Studentencorps,  1899,  pp.  67-79. 


142  HOLLAND 

is  likely  to  mean  a  good  deal  of  repetition,  or  a  minute 
study  of  details,  in  this  case  apparently  the  latter. 

The  professors  have  been  blamed  for  reducing 
their  instruction  too  much  to  a  mere  cramming  for 
the  examination ;  but  this  is  the  well-nigh  inevitable 
result  of  a  system  which  prepares  many  candidates 
for  a  highly  technical  examination  with  few  prizes. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  is  always  hard  to  interest 
the  students  in  anything  that  does  not  bear  directly 
upon  the  end  in  view.  Their  inclination  is  to  grind 
upon  the  details  given  them,  rather  than  to  extend 
the  scope  of  their  knowledge  by  outside  reading,  — 
a  tendency  which  is  revealed  in  a  complaint  by  an 
Examining  Commission  that  the  ignorance  of  the 
spelling  of  historic  names  showed  that  students  had 
obtained  their  knowledge  of  the  Dutch  Indies  exclu- 
sively from  lectures.^ 

THE    GRAND    EXAMINATION    AT    BATAVIA, NATIVES 

AND    HALF-CASTES 

Before  proceeding  to  the  criticisms  that  have  been 
made  upon  the  system  of  selecting  and  training 
colonial  officials  in  Holland,  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  consider  the  closely  related  subject  of  the  exami- 
nation and  school  in  the  Indies.  The  examinations 
in  the  two  places  are  as  nearly  as  possible  identical, 
but  the  conditions  under  which  they  are  taken  are 
entirely  different.  Above  all,  there  is  the  great  ques- 
tion of  race.     The  natives  of  the  Indies  are  nominally 

^  Report  of  the  Commission,  1896,  p.  3. 


NATIVES  AND   HALF-CASTES  I43 

admitted  to  the  civil  service  on  the  same  terms  as 
the  Dutch,^  but  an  incident  which  occurred  some 
years  ago  shows  that  in  the  opinion  of  the  Govern- 
ment the  principle  cannot  really  be  carried  out. 
There  has  been  only  one  case  where  a  native  has 
succeeded  in  going  through  the  school  at  Delft,  and 
attaining  in  the  Grand  Examination  a  rank  high 
enough  to  entitle  him  to  be  selected.  He  wanted 
to  receive  the  regular  appointment  to  the  post  of 
Aspirant  Controller  in  the  Administration  of  the 
Interior,  where  he  could  rule  over  other  natives ;  but 
to  his  chagrin  he  was  made  instead  an  Inspector  of 
Education.  This  case  is  universally  believed  to  indi- 
cate that  no  native  will  ever  be  appointed  to  the 
administrative  service. 

The  school  in  the  Indies  which  prepares  for  the 
Grand  Examination  there,  —  a  special  department  of 
the  "William  III."  Gymnasium  at  Batavia,^ — though 
included  among  the  educational  institutions  reserved 
for  Europeans,  is,  I  am  told,  specially  opened  to 
natives.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the 
natives  do  not  attempt  to  enter  it,  or  to  pass  the  Grand 
Examination  at  Batavia.  The  men  who  do  so  are 
partly  Dutch,  but  chiefly  Half-Castes.  Now  the  Half- 
Castes  do  very  well  in  the  lower  positions,  because 
they  have  no  difficulty  in  understanding  the  native 
temperament,  but  they  are  hardly  fit  for  the  higher 

^  Ordinance  of  September  10,  1864,  Art.  i. 

'  "  De  Burgerlijke  Gouveruementsbetrekkingen  in  Ned.  OoBt-Indie," 
G.  A.  De  Koning,  p.  154. 


144  HOLLAND 

ones.  It  has  been  said,  indeed,  that  they  combine 
the  faults  of  both  races,  and  while  that  is,  no  doubt, 
an  unfair  statement,  it  is  certainly  true  that  they  do 
not  possess  the  force  of  the  Europeans.  There  is  a 
prevalent  feeling,  therefore,  that  the  existence  of  a 
separate  examination  in  the  Indies,  which  enables 
these  men  to  enter  the  service,  without  even  the 
invigorating  effect  of  an  education  amid  European 
surroundings,  is  unfortunate.  But  the  question  is 
complicated  by  a  consideration  of  the  probable  polit- 
ical effect  of  depriving  the  Half-Castes  and  the 
Dutch  in  the  East  of  a  highly  prized  privilege. 

CRITICISM    MADE    UPON    THE    PRESENT    SYSTEM 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  system  of  selecting 
and  training  colonial  officials  in  Holland  is  in  many 
important  respects  the  very  reverse  of  that  adopted 
in  England.  Two  of  the  cardinal  principles  of  the 
English  system  are,  that  the  competitive  examination 
should  be  such  as  to  require  a  high  degree  of  gen- 
eral education,  and  that  it  should  not  involve  special 
technical  preparation  which  would  be  wasted  if  the 
candidate  is  unsuccessful.^  In  the  Dutch  system,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  only  guarantee  of  general  educa- 
tion is  a  high  school  diploma,  and  the  examination 
bears  exclusively  upon  technical  subjects,  for  which 

^  The  third  English  principle  —  that  after  selection  the  attention 
of  the  candidate  should  be  devoted  entirely  to  his  special  training  — 
has  clearly  no  application  in  Holland,  because  by  the  time  the  can- 
didate is  selected,  his  special  training  at  home  is  finished  and  he  is 
despatched  immediately  to  the  East. 


REPORT   OF   THE   COMMISSION  I4S 

there  is  needed  a  long  course  of  special  study  lead- 
ing to  no  other  career.  It  is  upon  these  two  points, 
and  the  inevitable  topic  of  cramming,  that  com- 
plaints are  mainly  heard  in  Holland. 

The  Recent  Special  Commission  and  its  Report 

There  has  been  a  good  deal  of  criticism,  both  by  the 
Governor  General  and  in  the  Dutch  Parliament,  of  the 
unsatisfactory  education  of  the  members  of  the  civil 
service  of  the  Indies,  and  on  December  28,  1898,  the 
Minister  of  the  Colonies  appointed  a  special  Com- 
mission of  five  members  to  inquire  into  the  need  of  a 
revision  of  the  method  of  selecting  them.  He  ap- 
pointed as  chairman  a  former  Vice-President  of  the 
Council  of  the  Indies  who  had  long  been  a  member  of 
the  service,  and  as  his  four  colleagues,  another  former 
member  of  the  service,  two  professors  from  Leyden 
and  Utrecht,  and  the  head  of  the  Bureau  for  the  Per- 
sonnel in  the  Colonial  Office,  —  a  composition  which 
insured  both  experience  and  a  difference  in  the  point 
of  view.  The  Commission  made  its  Report  on  May  27, 
1899,  and  the  document  is  worthy  of  carefuLconsidera- 
tion.  After  reciting  the  laws  by  which  the  selection 
of  candidates  is  regulated  the  Commission  says  :  — 

"  The  offices  that  belong  to  the  service  of  the  Dutch  Indies 
are  of  very  diverse  natures,  and  are  scattered  over  a  number 
of  regions  which  are  very  different  in  language  and  custom. 
Now  with  many  of  the  offices  which  belong  to  this  service 
there  are  connected  multifarious  occupations.  The  result 
of  this  is,  that  it  is  impossible  so  to  direct  the  education  of 


146  HOLLAND 

those  who  are  destined  for  this  service,  as  to  give  them,  even 
in  a  measure,  a  complete  theoretical  summary  of  the  things 
that  will  be  demanded  of  them  in  practice. 

"  In  the  first  place,  the  administrative  service  in  the  Dutch 
Indies  requires  officials  with  a  great  diversity  of  knowledge 
among  themselves ;  in  the  second  place,  persons  of  such  an 
amount  of  education  as  shall  put  them  in  a  position  to  study 
and  resolve  for  themselves  the  problems  which  each  of  them 
may  meet  in  his  service  ;  in  the  third  place,  there  are  needed 
for  a  great  many  posts  men  of  character,  initiative,  and  high 
education." 

The  Report  then  points  out  that  although  Doctors 
of  Law  can  legally  be  appointed  to  the  administrative 
service,  this  is  almost  never  done;  and  it  proceeds  :  — 

"The  complaints,  which  have  been  made  in  recent  times 
against  the  training  of  the  Indian  officials,  relate  wholly  to 
the  appointments  as  regulated  in  the  Royal  decree  of  August 
19,  1883,  with  the  subsequent  modifications  thereof. 

"  To  the  commission,  indeed,  this  regulation  appears  very 
defective. 

"  It  does  not  give  the  slightest  guarantee,  either  of  a  diver- 
sity of  information,  or  of  a  high  degree  of  education  or  of 
character. 

"  Its  first  defect  is  that  it  lays  exclusive  stress  upon  Indian 
studies.  It  leaves  out  of  sight  the  fact  that,  as  pointed  out 
above,  it  is  impossible  to  fit  out  the  future  Indian  officials 
with  such  an  amount  of  knowledge  of  the  Indies  as  will  be 
even  in  a  measure  sufficient  for  the  duties  that  await  them. 

"  By  striving  after  that  unattainable  goal,  it  leaves  out  of 
account,  diversity  of  training,  general  education,  and  char- 
acter. 

"  The  three  years'  course  which  is  now  the  rule,  gives  a 
knowledge  of  detail  which  is  not  enough  for  practice,  and 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSION  I47 

yet  might  be  learned  in  practice  with  a  great  deal  less  labor 
and  more  certainty.  Since  it  goes  too  much  into  detail,  it 
degenerates  into  memorizing,  and  the  examination  pro- 
gramme, at  least  in  the  way  in  which  it  is  applied,  helps 
that  result. 

"  For  broad  conceptions,  which  master  the  materials,  and 
prepare  the  way  for,  and  provoke,  subsequent  independent 
investigation,  there  is  no  place.  Memorizing  in  studies  kills 
with  many  the  love  of  the  subject,  and  thus  diminishes  all 
later  striving  after  further  progress  by  personal  research. 

"  It  can  certainly  cause  no  surprise  that  such  a  three  years' 
course  frightens  off  young  men  who  have  acquired  that  gen- 
eral education  on  which  the  highest  value  ought  to  be  set. 
Nearly  all  the  candidates  come  in  fact  from  the  high  schools, 
and  have  no  trace  of  high  education  or  of  diversity  of  train- 
ing among  themselves.  There  is  no  need  of  further  argu- 
ment to  prove  that  such  a  three  years'  course,  which  is  so 
arranged  that  its  only  result  is  the  production  of  young  men 
with  overladen  brains,  can  hardly  have  a  formative  effect  on 
the  character  of  those  who  pursue  it. 

"  A  great  part  of  the  time  now  devoted  to  the  study  of 
details,  which  has  no  other  use  than  that  of  giving  the  power 
to  obtain  a  higher  mark  at  the  examination  than  some  one 
else,  would  certainly  be  much  better  spent  if  it  served  to 
give  some  knowledge  and  experience  of  life. 

"  In  the  opinion  of  the  Commission  the  Indian  studies 
ought  to  be  reduced  to  a  minimum,  sufficient  as  a  founda- 
tion to  build  upon  in  active  life.  Their  character  might  be 
such  as  to  give  a  general  familiarity,  that  would  work  in  with 
any  subject  of  which  each  man  might  in  his  service  learn 
more  by  study  and  observation. 

"If  this  should  happen,  there  might,  indeed,  be  attracted 
to  these  studies  persons  whose  previous  education  had  been 
broader  and  higher  than  the  high  school  alone  gives. 

"  The  mistaken  tendency,  which,  according  to  the  opinion 


148  HOLLAND 

of  the  Commission  the  studies  have  more  and  more  taken  on, 
is  certainly  to  be  attributed  in  a  great  measure  to  the  sharp 
competition  between  those  who  wish  to  fit  themselves  for 
the  Indian  service.  The  competitive  examination  has 
screwed  up  the  studies  more  and  more.  From  the  neces- 
sity of  weighing  the  knowledge  of  the  students  against  one 
another  the  question  has  become  who  has  the  greatest 
knowledge  of  details,  a  matter  of  very  secondary  importance 
for  the  Indian  service,  which  has  need  of  quite  different  men, 
men  of  broad  views  and  education,  quahties  which  are  not 
acquired  only  on  the  benches  of  schools. 

"  In  connection  with  this  the  following  objections  to  the 
existing  system  are  palpable  and  universally  recognized  :  — 

"  First,  that  a  satisfactory  completion  of  the  studies  for 
the  post  of  Indian  official  affords  no  certainty  of  obtaining 
the  desired  appointment  in  the  service  of  the  country ;  while 
on  account  of  their  highly  specialized  character  these  sub- 
jects lead  to  no  other  career,  and  thus  at  least  three  years 
of  life  have  been  lost  which  might  have  served  as  a  prepara- 
tion for  obtaining  some  commercial  position. 

"Second,  that  the  Government,  partly  apparently  in 
order  to  reduce  as  low  as  possible  the  number  of  disap- 
pointments and  more  or  less  complete  failures  in  Hfe,  and 
partly  with  the  object  of  preserving  the  means  of  liveHhood 
for  the  institutions  of  learning  which  are  specially  devoted 
to  Indian  studies,  has  often  appointed  more  officials  than 
the  needs  of  the  service  demanded ;  and  this  has  produced 
among  the  younger  officials  in  the  Indies,  who  must  wait 
long  before  they  can  obtain  an  appointment  as  Aspirant 
Controller,  a  spirit  of  discouragement  and  dissatisfaction 
that  has  a  bad  effect  on  their  fitness  for  the  service,  when  at 
last  the  time  comes  for  an  appointment  to  that  office. 

"  From  this  standpoint  also  a  revision  of  the  conditions  is 
urgently  required. 

"  The  Commission  is  of  the  opinion  that,  in  order  to  reach 


REPORT  OF  THE  COMMISSION  149 

a  sound  basis,  the  selection  of  officials  for  the  civil  service 
of  the  Indies  ought  to  be  transferred  from  the  end  of  the 
course  of  study  to  the  beginning,  so  that  all  those  who  have 
completed  the  course  shall  be  certain  of  appointment.  The 
competitive  examination  with  its  train  of  undesirable  conse- 
quences thereby  disappears.  Likewise  the  talk  about  the 
appointment  of  more  officials  than  the  need  of  the  service 
requires. 

"  A  special  institution  of  education,  which  could  pay  its 
own  expenses,  could  not  stand  with  such  a  system ;  but  it 
follows  from  the  considerations  explained  above  that  it  is  not 
needed." 

The  rest  of  the  Report  deals  with  the  methods  of 
selecting  and  training  East  Indian  officials  which 
the  Commission  propose  as  a  substitute  for  the  exist- 
ing system,  and  it  is  followed  by  a  draft  of  an  ordi- 
nance embodying  the  plan ;  but  this  part  of  the 
Report  contains  too  many  references  to  the  tech- 
nicalities of  Dutch  law  to  be  inserted  in  full. 

The  Plan  proposed  by  the  Commission 

In  its  general  outlines  the  plan  proposed  by  the 
Commission  consists  of  a  free  selection  of  candidates 
by  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies,  upon  the  recom- 
mendation of  a  permanent  commission ;  the  only 
limitation  being  that  the  men  selected  must  be  phys- 
ically sound,  and  must  be  the  holders  of  certain 
degrees  or  diplomas,  or  of  certain  offices,  civil  or 
military.  First  among  the  degrees  are  mentioned 
the  Doctorates  of  Universities.  But  fearing  that,  if 
they  insisted  upon  these  as  the  only  qualification, 


1 50  HOLLAND 

there  would  be  a  lack  of  applicants,  the  Commission 
enumerated  sundry  diplomas  of  a  slightly  lower 
grade,  with  the  intention,  however,  that  the  Doctors 
should  always  have  the  preference. 

The  plan  provides  that  after  the  selection  the 
candidates  chosen  shall  spend  one  year  in  special 
preparation  for  their  duties  in  the  East,  and  shall 
then  pass  an  examination  which,  except  for  the 
Javanese  language  and  the  codes,  covers  the  same 
subjects  as  the  present  Grand  Examination  for  Offi- 
cials, but  in  a  much  more  elementary  way.^  This 
examination  is  not  to  be  competitive,  and,  in  fact,  the 
Commission  say  that  it  ought  to  be  regarded  rather 
as  a  test  whether  the  candidates  have  spent  their 
year  of  preparation  well,  than  as  a  searching  inquiry 
into  the  amount  of  their  information.  The  Commis- 
sion were  strongly  of  opinion  that  each  candidate 
ought  to  be  free  to  spend  his  year  of  study  where 
he  pleased,  although  they  felt  that  residence  at  a 
University  was  preferable  to  anything  else,  and 
would  undoubtedly  be  the  general  rule.  But  wher- 
ever the  year  is  passed  the  Report  expressly  provides 
that  the  candidates  shall  be  under  the  supervision 
of  the  permanent  commission,  which  may  call  them 
before  it,  question  them,  and  give  them  information 
and  advice.     Strange  as  it  may  seem,  this  provision 

^  One  member  of  the  Commission  who  had  been  in  the  Civil  Ser- 
vice of  the  Indies  wanted  to  retain  the  Codes,  and  thought  a  single 
year  too  short  a  time  to  acquire  the  necessary  familiarity  with  the 
native  tongues. 


REPORT   OF   THE   COMMISSION  151 

was  probably  an  attempt  to  follow  the  English  prac- 
tice. The  fact  is  that  the  Commission  were  very 
deeply  influenced  by  Macaulay's  Report  and  by  the 
experience  of  England,  and  in  this  particular  point 
they  were,  no  doubt,  misled  by  an  impression  which 
had  become  prevalent,^  that  the  English  Civil  Ser- 
vice Commissioners  have  exercised,  at  least  at  times,  a 
real  supervision  over  the  selected  candidates  for  the 
Indian  service. 

Finally  the  Report  recommended  that  the  Grand 
Examination  should  be  abolished,  not  only  in  Hol- 
land, but  in  the  Indies  also  ;  and,  in  fact,  it  was  not 
proposed  to  have  any  members  of  the  service  recruited 
in  the  East,  for  none  of  the  degrees  or  offices  required 
as  a  qualification  for  candidates  were  such  as  could 
be  obtained  without  a  European  education. 

Comments  made  upon  the  Report 

This  Report  has  not  yet  been  acted  upon  by  the 
Government,  but  it  has  naturally  given  rise  to  a  great 
deal  of  discussion ;  and,  judging  from  what  the  writer 
was  enabled  to  gather  in  Holland  both  from  the  Press 
and  from  conversation  with  men  whose  official  positions 
had  led  them  to  consider  the  matter,  there  was  a  very 
general  agreement  with  much  of  the  Commission's 
criticism  of  the  existing  system,  but  far  less  approval 
of  the  plan  it  proposed.     The  feeling,  for  example, 

^  Chailley-Bert,  CompU  Rtndu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  329,  334;  "La  Colo- 
nisation de  rindo-Chine,"  pp.  240,  247;  Boutmy,  "Le  Recrutement 
des  Administrateurs  Coloniaux,"  pp.  78,  79,  81. 


152  HOLLAND 

that  a  competitive  examination  coming  at  the  end  of 
a  long  course  of  special  training  is  an  evil,  was  almost 
universal,^  and  the  opinion  was  very  prevalent  that 
too  large  a  proportion  of  the  young  men  who  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  appointment  were  bookworms, 
lacking  in  the  elasticity  of  mind,  the  breadth  of 
view,  and  the  knowledge  of  the  world,  required  for 
ruling  large  bodies  of  natives.^  Dr.  Spanjaard  him- 
self, the  Director  of  the  School  at  Delft,  has  taken 
occasion  to  say  publicly  that  the  Grand  Examination 
alone  does  not  furnish  a  sufficient  test  of  character, 
and  that  the  English  system  is  better  in  this  respect.^ 
It  is,  in  fact,  commonly  believed  that  passing  the 
examination  has  become  altogether  too  much  an  effort 
of  committing  to  memory  a  large  mass  of  unnecessary 
details,  and  that  the  lengthening  of  the  course  to  three 
years  has  intensified  the  tendency.  From  reading 
the  description  of  the  courses  in  the  Almanac  of  the 
Society  of  Students  {Ifidologisch  Studentencorps),  one 
certainly  gets  the  impression  that  they  go  very  elabo- 
rately into  the  details  of  the  subjects  treated. 

In  regard  to  the  plan  proposed,  the  Commission  is 
thought  by  many  people  to  have  gone  from  one  ex- 
treme to  the  other ;  and  there  has  been  a  chorus  of 
objection  to  reducing  the  course  of  special  prepara- 
tion to   a  single  year.     A   fear  has  also  been  ex- 

^  Cf.  Vragen  des  Tijds,  August,  1899;  Algemeen  Handehblad  July 
22,   1899;   Arnhemsche  Courant,  July  31,  1899. 

^  Cf.  two  letters  by  former  members  of  the  service  to  the  Algemeen 
Handehblad,  July  22  and  27,  1899. 

*  Compte  Rendu,  op,  cit.,  pp.  407-408. 


REPORT   OF   THE   COMMISSION  153 

pressed  that  the  Report  is  over-sanguine,  and  that  the 
best  men  would  never  be  tempted  to  give  up  a  fair 
prospect  of  some  other  career  to  enter  the  service.* 
It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  an  attempt  is  being 
made  to  remedy  this  last  difficulty  in  another  way,  by 
raising  salaries  and  making  the  service  more  attrac- 
tive. The  most  assailable  point  in  the  plan  is,  of 
course,  the  arbitrary  selection  of  the  candidates  with- 
out an  open  competition  of  any  kind,  and  this  has 
naturally  been  violently  attacked.  It  certainly  seems 
strange  that  the  commissioners,  who  were  deeply 
influenced  by  the  English  methods,  should  have 
accepted  the  plot  and  left  the  part  of  Hamlet  out,  for 
the  competitive  examination  is  the  very  basis  of  the 
whole  system  in  England.  But  the  fact  is  that  the 
Commission  was  trying  to  get  University  men  into 
the  service,  and  it  is  hardly  possible  to  hold  competi- 
tive examinations  among  such  men  in  Holland,  for 
there  is  nothing  in  the  Dutch  Universities  that  corre- 
sponds to  the  undergraduate  work  at  Oxford  or  Cam- 
bridge, where  the  courses  are  taken  mainly  for  their 
educational  value.  The  Dutch  University  men  are 
studying  for  some  professional  doctorate,  and  it  would 
be  clearly  impracticable  to  hold  a  real  competitive 
examination  between  the  men  who  were  studying  to 
be  Doctors  of  Law  and  those  who  were  studying  to 
be  Doctors  of  Medicine  or  Philosophy.  There  is  not 
enough  in  common  to  form  the  basis  for  a  compari- 

1  Indische  Gids,  August,  1899;  Ilet  Nietnvs  van  den  Dag,  August 
16  and  17,  1899;  Net  Vaterland,  July  16-17,  *^9' 


1 54  HOLLAND 

son.  It  was,  therefore,  necessary  to  confine  the  com- 
petition to  the  students  in  a  single  Faculty,  or  to  give  it 
up  altogether.  In  view  of  the  professional  character 
of  University  studies,  a  criticism  has,  in  fact,  been 
made  upon  the  plan  in  the  Report,  which,  if  not  just, 
has  in  it  at  least  elements  of  truth.  Under  the  plea, 
it  is  said,  of  liberal  education  the  Commission  is  in 
reality  simply  trying  to  make  men  half  learn  one  pro- 
fession before  they  take  up  another.^ 

That  the  plan  proposed  or  any  other  system  of 
pure  arbitrary  selection  will  be  adopted  in  Holland, 
or  will  endure  if  adopted,  does  not  seem  likely ;  but 
that  some  considerable  change  will  be  made  in  the 
present  system  is  altogether  probable. 

THE   PHYSICAL   EXAMINATION 

After  all  the  talk  in  England  about  the  importance 
to  the  Eastern  official  of  a  vigorous  physique,  it  is 
surprising  that  one  hears  so  little  about  it  in  Holland. 
The  medical  inspection  there  takes  place  after  the 
Grand  Examination,^  and  it  is  needless  to  repeat  that 
it  is  an  invidious  thing  to  reject  a  man  after  he  has 
labored  for  three  years  and  won  the  coveted  prize  at 
the  competition.  Under  such  circumstances  the  phys- 
ical standard  is  not  likely  to  be  very  high,  and  that 
this  is  the  case  in  Holland  would  appear  from  the 
fact  stated  by  Chailley-Bert,^  that  for  the  last  twenty- 

^  Indische  Gids,  August,  1 899,  p.  902. 
2  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883,  Art.  14. 
*  Compte  Rendu,  op.  cit,,  p.  372. 


SPECIAL  SERVICES  155 

five  years  no  candidate  has  been  refused  his  medical 
certificate.  Yet  one  certainly  hears  no  complaint  of 
a  lack  of  physical  stamina  in  the  officials. 

THE   NATIVE   OFFICIALS 

As  in  other  Asiatic  Colonies  there  is  a  native  ad- 
ministrative service  through  which  most  of  the  imme- 
diate relations  with  the  people  are  conducted ;  and 
this  is  true  even  where  the  Government  is  direct. 
But  the  method  of  appointment  calls  for  no  comment 
here.  Except  for  what  may  be  called  the  subordinate 
clerical  positions  the  native  officials  are  not  selected 
by  means  of  an  examination.  The  most  important 
ones,  known  as  Regents,  are  recruited  by  an  heredi- 
tary succession,  tempered  by  fitness ;  while  the  lesser 
officials  are  selected  freely,  a  good  deal  of  attention 
being  paid  to  social  influence  over  the  other  natives 
as  well  as  to  intellectual  capacity. 

SPECIAL    SERVICES 

There  are  in  the  Dutch  Indies  a  dozen  special  ser- 
vices in  which  Europeans  are  employed,  and  each  of 
them  is  subject  to  peculiar  provisions  of  its  own  in 
the  matter  of  recruiting.^  The  qualifications  for  the 
most  of  them  are  similar  to  those  in  force  for  corre- 
sponding occupations  in  Holland.  This  is  true  of  En- 
gineers, School  Teachers,  Veterinary  Surgeons,  and 

^  See  Maathuis,  "  Maatschappelijke  Betrekkingen  in  Nederland  en, 
Ned.  Oost-Indie  " ;  Koning,  "  Die  Burgerlijke  Gouvernementsbetrek- 
kingen  in  Ned.  Oost-Indid." 


1 56  HOLLAND 

the  like.  In  general  there  is  required  also  a  medical 
certificate  that  the  applicant  is  fit  for  work  in  the 
tropics ;  but  as  a  rule  a  study  of  what  the  Dutch  call 
Indology  is  not  necessary.  There  are,  however,  a 
few  exceptions.  The  post  and  telegraph  officials,  for 
example,  must  pass  an  examination  which,  for  the 
higher  grades,  includes  the  political  institutions  of 
the  Dutch  Indies  and  the  elements  of  the  Malay  lan- 
guage. Preachers  must  be  familiar  with  that  language 
and  with  the  ethnology  and  religion  of  the  people. 
And  Surveyors  must  either  have  passed  the  first 
part  of  the  Grand  Examination  for  Officials  or  a 
special  examination  which  includes  the  Javanese  and 
Malay  tongues. 

Usually  a  diploma  or  certificate  is  a  sufficient  qual- 
ification. Sometimes  there  is  a  special  examination, 
and  for  two  or  three  services  there  is  a  special  course 
of  training.  Thus  the  Foresters  go  through  the 
Indian  Department  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  School, 
which  includes  among  its  studies  the  elements  of  the 
Malay  language.  They  are  then  selected  by  means 
of  a  competitive  examination,  and  afterward  spend 
a  couple  of  years  more  at  the  Academy  of  Forestry 
in  Saxony  and  the  Herbarium  at  Leyden,  before 
going  to  the  East.  The  so-called  Officials  for  Chi- 
nese affairs,  on  the  other  hand,  are  first  selected  by 
a  competitive  examination  on  general  subjects,  and 
then  spend  in  the  study  of  Chinese  and  other  spe- 
cial subjects  six  years,  two  of  them  being  passed 
in  China,  —  a  procedure  which  might  well  be  extended 


SPECIAL   SERVICES  157 

to  other  services  where  the  competitive  examina- 
tion now  comes  at  the  end  of  the  special  training. 
In  short,  the  Dutch,  like  the  English,  have  recog- 
nized the  advantage  of  requiring  some  guarantee  that 
the  men  who  are  to  be  despatched  to  the  othef  side  of 
the  world  at  the  expense  of  the  Government  shall  be 
fit  for  the  work  they  are  sent  there  to  perform.  But, 
also  like  the  English,  they  have  not  felt  it  necessary 
to  insist  in  every  technical  service  that  a  man  should 
be  familiar,  before  his  departure,  with  the  people,  the 
institutions,  or  the  languages  of  the  East. 

THE  OTHER  DUTCH  COLONIES 

The  administrative  civil  service  and  the  method 
of  selecting  and  training  its  members,  which  have 
been  described,  apply  only  to  the  East  Indies;  for 
the  Dutch,  like  all  other  colonial  powers,  have  not 
found  it  possible  to  extend  the  system  over  their 
West  Indian  possessions.  In  fact,  it  cannot  be 
repeated  too  often  that,  since  slavery  came  to  an  end, 
the  West  Indies  have  presented  a  political  problem 
which  no  nation  has  been  able  to  solve  to  its  own 
complete  satisfaction. 


APPENDIX 

Rules  relating  to  the  Grand  Examination  for 
Official  Service  in  the  Indies 

(Annexed  to  the  Ordinance  of  July  20,  1893,  with  the  subsequent  modifica> 

tions.) 

Article  i 

The  grand  examination  for  officials  shall  be  divided 
into  two  parts,  of  which  the  second  is  competitive. 

An  opportunity  shall  be  given  both  in  Holland  and  the 
Dutch  Indies  to  pass  the  first  part,  on  and  after  the  year 
1894,  and  to  pass  the  second  part  on  and  after  the  year 
1896. 

Article  2 

The  first  part  of  the  grand  examination  for  officials 
shall  cover  the  following  subjects:  — 

1.  The  geography  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 

2.  The  Dutch  Indian  codes  of  law; 

3.  The  introduction  to  the  religious  laws,  institutions, 
and  customs  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 

4.  The  elements  of  the  Malay  language; 

5.  The  elements  of  the  Javanese  language. 

Only  those  persons  shall  be  admitted  to  this  part  of  the 
grand  examination  for  officials  who  have  passed  one  of  the 
following  examinations :  — 

{a)  One  of  the  examinations  for  obtaining  a  certificate 
of  fitness  to  pursue  the  studies  of  a  university,  or  one  of 

•58 


GRAND   EXAMINATION   FOR   OFFICIALS       159 

the  examinations  held  by  the  faculties  of  a  Dutch  uni- 
versity; 

{b)  The  final  examination  of  one  of  the  high  schools 
with  a  five  years'  course,  or  of  the  State  Agricultural 
School,  or  of  the  Polytechnic  School,  as  provided  in  the 
law  on  secondary  education ; 

(c)  The  examination  taken  by  persons  who  have  fol- 
lowed the  preparatory  course  at  the  State  Agricultural 
School,  as  provided  by  the  Royal  Ordinance  of  January  9, 
1891,  No.  10  (Indisch  Staatsblad,  No.  104); 

{d)  The  final  examination  of  a  high  school,  with  a  five 
years'  course  in  the  Dutch  Indies; 

(e)  The  final  examination  of  the  Royal  Institute  for 
the  Navy,  or  a  final  examination  at  the  Royal  Military 
Academy. 

Whoever  shall  have  already  offered  himself  twice  for  this 
part  of  the  examination  and  has  been  rejected,  or  for  any 
reason  except  grounds  deemed  legitimate  by  the  Govern- 
ment has  failed  to  appear  or  has  withdrawn  himself,  shall 
not  be  admitted  to  it  again. 

Those  who  have  already  offered  themselves  for  the  first 
part  of  the  grand  examination  for  officials  more  than  once 
without  obtaining  a  diploma,  before  this  ordinance  goes 
into  effect,  shall  be  admitted  once  more  to  this  part  of  the 
examination.^ 

(The  last  two  paragraphs  of  this  ordinance  were  added 
by  the  ordinance  of  December  15,  1897  (Nederlandsch 
Staatsblad,  No.  261),  in  accordance  with  the  recommenda- 
tions of  the  commission  that  conducts  the  examinations. 
See  their  report  for  1897,  pp.  5,  6.) 

Article  3 

The  second  part  of  the  grand  examination  for  officials 
shall  cover,  in  every  case,  the  following  six  subjects,  which 
are  therefore  termed  "required  subjects":  — 


l6o  APPENDIX 

1.  The  history  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 

2.  The  geography  and  ethnology  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 

3.  The  religious  laws,  institutions,  and  customs  of  the 
Dutch  Indies; 

4.  The  public  institutions  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 

5.  The  Malay  language; 

6.  The  Javanese  language. 

Those  who  wish  to  do  so  can,  at  the  second  part  of  the 
grand  examination  for  ofificials,  also  pass  an  examination 
in  any  other  native  language  of  the  Dutch  Indies,  in  which 
an  examination  can,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies  or  the  Governor  General ,  be  given  with  security. 

Each  language  shall  be  marked  at  the  examination  as  a 
separate  subject. 

Only  those  persons  shall  be  admitted  to  the  second  part 
of  the  grand  examination  for  officials  who  have  passed  the 
first  part. 

Those  persons  who  have  passed  one  of  the  examinations 
mentioned  in  the  second  paragraph  of  Article  2,  and  can 
prove  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  in 
Holland,  and  of  the  Governor  General  in  the  Dutch  Indies, 
that  they  prepared  themselves  for  the  grand  examination 
for  officials  for  service  in  the  Indies,  without  having  an 
opportunity  to  pass  it  in  1893,  shall  be  admitted  to  the 
second  half  of  the  said  examination. 

(The  last  paragraph  was  added  by  the  Ordinance  of 
August  29,  1895.) 

(Those  persons  who  are  still  under  obligation  to  serve  in 
the  navy  or  in  the  army  in  the  Netherlands  or  in  the  East 
or  West  Indies,  and  those  who,  on  account  of  their  nation- 
ality, cannot  be  appointed  to  the  civil  service  of  the 
Dutch  Indies  shall  not  be  admitted  to  the  second  part  of 
the  grand  examination  for  officials.) 

(This  paragraph  was  repealed  by  the  Ordinance  of  Febru- 
ary 3,  1899.) 


GRAND  EXAMINATION  FOR  OFFICIALS       l6l 

Article  4 

Whoever  has  passed  either  of  the  two  parts  of  the  grand 
examination  for  officials  shall  receive  a  certificate  to  that 
effect,  which  shall  state  the  mark  he  has  obtained  in  each 
subject  in  which  he  has  been  examined. 

Article  5 

In  the  years  1894  and  1895  the  first  part  of  the  grand 
examination  for  officials  shall  be  held  by  the  same  com- 
mission which  holds  the  grand  examination  for  officials 
on  the  old  plan,  in  accordance  with  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Royal  Ordinance  of  August  29,  1883  (Ned.  Staatsblad,  No. 
133;  Ind.  Staatsblad,  No.  249),  and  it  shall  be  held  at  the 
same  time  or  immediately  after  that  examination. 

Article  6 

Beginning  with  the  year  1896  the  first  and  second  parts 
of  the  grand  examination  for  officials  shall  be  held  by  the 
same  commission,  at  the  same  time  or  immediately  after 
one  another. 

The  grand  examination  for  officials  shall  begin  every 
year,  in  Holland  on  the  third  Monday  of  the  month  of 
June,  in  the  Dutch  Indies  at  a  time  to  be  appointed  by  the 
Governor  General. 

It  shall  be  announced  twice  in  the  official  newspaper 
about  two  months  beforehand. 

Within  one  month  after  the  first  announcement  all  per- 
sons who  wish  to  enter  the  examination  must  give  written 
notice  thereof,  in  Holland  to  the  Department  of  the  Colo- 
nies, in  the  Dutch  Indies  to  the  Secretary  General. 

They  must  state  therein  which  part  of  the  examination 
they  wish  to  enter,  and  —  if  it  is  the  second  part  of  the 
examination  —  whether  they  wish  to  be  examined  in  any 
native  languages  beside  Malay  and  Javanese. 


1 62  APPENDIX 

At  the  same  time  they  must  deposit  the  evidence  that 
they  are  qualified,  in  accordance  with  the  provision  of 
Articles  2  and  3,  to  enter  that  part  of  the  examination  for 
which  they  offer  themselves. 

(Those  persons  who  are  under  any  obligation  to  serve  in 
the  navy  or  in  the  army  in  the  Netherlands  or  in  the  East 
or  West  Indies  must,  in  order  to  be  admitted  to  the  sec- 
ond part  of  the  examination,  show  that  they  have  completed 
the  service,  or  deposit  the  evidence  of  an  honorable  dis- 
charge. If  they  fail  to  do  so,  their  request  to  be  admitted 
to  the  second  part  of  the  examination  will  receive  no  atten- 
tion, and  will  not  be  delivered  to  the  examining  Com- 
mission.) 

(The  same  action  will  be  taken  in  the  case  of  requests  to 
be  admitted  to  the  second  part  of  the  examination  on  the 
part  of  persons  who  on  account  of  their  nationality  cannot 
be  appointed  to  the  civil  service  in  the  Dutch  Indies.) 

(These  last  two  paragraphs  were  repealed  by  the  Ordi- 
nance of  February  3,  1899.) 

Article  7 

Both  parts  of  the  grand  examination  for  officials  shall  be 
held  in  public,  in  accordance  with  a  regulation  and  pro- 
gramme to  be  made  by  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies. 

Each  candidate  shall  be  given  a  mark  for  every  subject 
in  which  he  is  examined. 

The  question  whether  a  candidate  has  or  has  not  passed 
the  second  part  of  the  examination  shall  be  determined 
according  to  the  marks  obtained  in  the  required  subjects, 
in  the  manner  provided  in  the  regulation,  without  taking 
into  account  the  examination  in  the  subjects  not  required. 

Article  8 

The  Commission  which  holds  the  grand  examination  for 
officials  shall  consist  of  at  least  seven  members.    They  shall 


GRAND   EXAMINATION   FOR   OFFICIALS       163 

be  appointed  each  year,  in  the  Netherlands  by  the  Minister 
of  the  Colonies,  in  the  Dutch  Indies  by  the  Governor 
General.  At  the  time  of  their  appointment  one  of  the 
members  shall  be  designated  as  president  and  another  as 
secretary. 

The  members  shall  be  allowed  compensation  for  travel, 
residence,  and  time,  in  accordance  with  regulations  to 
be  made,  in  the  Netherlands  by  Royal  Ordinance,  and  in 
the  Dutch  Indies  by  the  Governor  General. 

The  Commission  shall  make,  in  the  Netherlands  to  the 
Minister  of  the  Colonies,  in  the  Dutch  Indies  to  the  Gov- 
ernor General,  a  full  report  of  both  parts  of  the  examina- 
tion, and  shall  state  therein,  in  the  case  of  each  of  the 
persons  examined,  the  results  of  the  examination  in  every 
subject  in  which  he  has  been  examined,  together  with  its 
opinion  of  the  technical  proficiency  of  those  who  have 
passed  the  second  part  of  the  examination. 

The  report  of  the  first  part  of  the  Examination  shall  be 
made  in  1894  and  1895  by  the  Commission  which  is 
charged  with  holding  it  in  Article  5. 

Article  9 

Whenever  special  circumstances  in  any  year  make  it 
necessary,  the  opportunity  to  pass  the  second  part  of  the 
grand  examination  for  officials  can  be  given  more  than 
once.  This  shall  be  decided  by  the  Minister  of  the  Colo- 
nies, after  consultation  with  the  Governor  General.  The 
rules  established  for  the  yearly  examination  shall,  as  far  as 
possible,  be  applied  to  any  such  subsequent  examination. 

Each  time  that  a  candidate  offers  himself  for  either  part 
of  the  grand  examination  for  officials  for  the  Indian  ser- 
vice, he  must  pay  into  the  Treasury  a  fee  of  twenty-five 
gulden. 

The  evidence  of  payment  must  be  handed  in  with  the 
request  to  be  admitted  to  the  examination. 


l64  APPENDIX 

This  examination  fee  shall  be  the  property  of  the  State 
unless  the  candidate  is  refused  admission  to  the  examina- 
tion, in  accordance  with  the  provisions  relating  thereto,  in 
which  case  the  money  shall  be  repaid. 

(The  last  three  paragraphs  were  added  by  the  ordinance 
of  October  19,  1896  [Nederlandsch  Staatsblad,  No.  164], 
upon  the  suggestion  of  the  examining  Commissioners,  who 
wished  to  prevent  men  insufficiently  prepared  from  offering 
themselves  and  withdrawing  at  the  last  moment.  See  report 
of  the  Commission  in  1896,  p.  6.) 


REGULATION   AND   PROGRAMME 

Established  by  a  Resolution  of  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies 
on  July  31,  i8gj,  letter  D.,  No.  53,  for  the  grand  ex- 
amination for  officials  for  service  in  the  Indies,  when  it  is 
passed  as  a  whole,  in  accordance  with  the  Rules  annexed 
to  the  Royal  Ordinance  of  July  20,  i8gj,  No.  2g. 

REGULATION 

Article  i 

The  commission  for  holding  the  grand  examination  for 
officials  shall  pay  careful  attention  to  the  provisions  made 
in  the  Rules,  concerning  the  said  examination,  annexed  to 
the  Royal  ordinance  of  July  20,  1893,  No.  29. 

Article  2 

In  a  preliminary  session  the  commission  shall  enquire 
whether  the  candidates  have  furnished  the  evidence  that, 
having  satisfied  the  requirements  of  Articles  2  and  3  of  the 
Rules  annexed  to  the  Royal  ordinance  of  July  20,  1893, 
No.  29,  they  can  be  admitted  to  the  part  of  the  examina- 
tion for  which  they  have  offered  themselves. 


GRAND  EXAMINATION   FOR   OFFICIALS       1 65 

For  this  purpose  the  commission  shall  receive  in  due 
season  the  documents  which  have  been  sent  by  the  candi- 
dates to  the  Department  of  the  Colonies  or  to  the  Secre- 
tary General. 

In  doubtful  cases  they  shall  request  the  decision  of  the 
Minister  of  the  Colonies  or  of  the  Governor  General. 

The  commission  shall  give  notice  to  those  who  cannot 
be  admitted  to  the  part  of  the  grand  examination  for 
officials  for  which  they  have  offered  themselves. 

Article  3 

In  the  preliminary  session  there  shall  be  ^formed  for  each 
part  of  the  examination,  from  among  the  members  of  the 
commission,  as  many  sub-committees,  of  at  least  two 
members,  as  there  are  subjects  to  be  examined;  and  to 
each  sub-committee  shall  be  assigned  a  subject  in  which  it 
shall  examine. 

The  president  and  secretary  may  be  excused  from  taking 
part  in  these  sub-committees. 

Article  4 

The  president  in  consultation  with  the  secretary  shall 
determine  the  order  of  business  of  the  whole  commission 
and  of  the  sub-committees,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  in  such 
a  way  that  the  examination  of  each  candidate  shall  be  fin- 
ished, in  two  days  in  the  case  of  the  first  part,  and  in  three 
days  in  the  case  of  the  second  part  of  the  examination. 

Article  5 

The  candidates  shall  be  informed  by  the  secretary  in 
due  time  of  the  time  and  place  of  their  examinations. 

Article  6 

The  first  part  of  the  examination  shall  be  oral  in  every 
subject,  with  the  exception  of  the  elements  of  the  Malay 


l66  APPENDIX 

language  and  the  elements  of  the  Javanese  language,  in 
which  written  examinations  shall  be  given.  The  oral 
examination  in  every  subject  lasts  at  most  three-quarters  of 
an  hour,  the  written  examination  two  hours. 

The  second  part  of  the  examination  shall  be  oral  and 
written  in  every  subject.  The  oral  examination  in  every 
subject  lasts  at  the  most  half  an  hour,  the  written  examina- 
tion two  hours. 

In  each  of  the  subjects  "History  of  the  Dutch  Indies," 
"Geography  and  Ethnology  of  the  Dutch  Indies,"  "Re- 
ligious Laws,  Institutions,  and  Customs  of  the  Dutch 
Indies,"  and  "Political  Institutions  of  the  Dutch  Indies," 
the  candidates  shall  be  given,  in  the  written  examination, 
a  choice  between  two  questions. 

Article  7 

Written  work  handed  in  to  a  sub-committee  shall  be 
examined  by  each  of  its  members. 

As  far  as  possible,  all  the  members  of  a  sub-committee 
shall  be  present  at  the  oral  examination.  In  case  of  tem- 
porary hindrance  the  president  shall  appoint  another 
member  of  the  commission  to  take  the  place  of  the  absent 
member  of  the  sub-committee. 

Article  8 

To  each  candidate  shall  be  given  in  every  subject  in 
which  he  is  examined  a  mark  from  o  to  lo.  The  mark  o 
means  entire  ignorance;  the  marks  i  and  2  betoken  bad; 
3  and  4  unsatisfactory;  5  and  6  satisfactory;  7  and  8  good; 
9  and  10  excellent;  always  with  the  understanding  that  the 
higher  mark  indicates  a  higher  degree  of  knowledge  than 
the  lower. 

Article  9 

The  members  of  each  sub-committee  shall  try  to  agree 
about  the  marks  to  be  given  to  the  persons  examined  by 


GRAND   EXAMINATION   FOR   OFFICIALS       1 6/ 

them.  Objections  to  the  mark  given  can,  however,  be 
offered  by  other  members  of  the  commission  who  have 
been  present  at  the  examination,  or  have  looked  over  the 
written  work. 

If  the  members  of  a  sub-committee  cannot  agree  upon  a 
mark  to  be  given,  or  if  a  difference  of  opinion  about  it 
exists  between  them  and  another  member  of  the  commis- 
sion, the  president,  after  hearing  the  opinion  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  commission  who  may  be  supposed  to  have  the 
best  knowledge  of  the  subject,  shall  endeavor  to  bring 
about  an  agreement  of  opinion;  and  if  he  does  not  succeed 
in  this,  he  shall  decide  upon  the  mark  to  be  given  on  his 
own  judgment  formed  upon  the  opinions  given  to  him. 

Article  io 

A  candidate  who  has  received  at  the  first  part  of  the 
examination  in  every  subject,  or  at  the  second  part  of  the 
examination  in  each  of  the  required  subjects,  the  mark  5 
or  a  higher  mark  shall  be  declared,  without  further  discus- 
sion, to  have  passed  the  examination. 

A  candidate  who  has  not  received  at  the  first  part  of  the 
examination  more  than  twenty-two  points  for  all  the  sub- 
jects added  together,  or  a  candidate  who  has  not  received 
at  the  second  part  more  than  twenty-seven  points  for  all  the 
required  subjects  added  together,  shall  be  declared  not  to 
have  passed  the  examination. 

A  candidate  shall  also  be  rejected  who  has  received  in 
one  or  more  subjects  (at  the  second  half  required  subjects) 
one  of  the  marks  o,  i,  or  2,  or  in  two  or  more  subjects  (at 
the  second  half  required  subjects)  one  of  the  marks  3  or  4, 

(By  the  original  Resolution  of  July  20,  1893,  the  require- 
ments were,  for  the  first  part  a  total  of  twenty  points,  for 
the  second  a  total  of  twenty- four,  and  the  absence  of  any 
marks  of  o.     The  existing  requirements  were  made  by  a 


l68  APPENDIX 

Resolution  of  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  on  December 
27,  1897.) 

In  all  cases  not  provided  for  by  the  first  three  paragraphs 
of  this  article,  the  commission  shall  discuss  the  question 
whether  the  candidate  can  be  considered  to  have  passed  a 
^tisfactory  examination,  taking  account  therein,  in  the 
second  half  of  the  examination,  only  of  the  required  sub- 
jects. The  question  shall  be  decided  by  vote.  In  case  of 
a  tie  the  examination  shall  be  considered  satisfactory. 

Article  ii 

The  rank  list  of  those  who  have  passed  the  second  half 
of  the  examination  shall  be  made  up  from  the  result  of  the 
examination  in  the  six  required  subjects,  with  the  under- 
standing that  a  candidate  who  has  received  in  one  or  more 
voluntary  subjects  a  higher  mark  than  he  obtained  in  the 
Javanese  language  shall  be  credited  with  the  highest  of 
these  marks,  provided  the  mark  in  the  voluntary  subject  is 
not  less  than  5. 

In  case  of  an  equality  of  marks,  the  commission  shall 
determine  the  order  in  which  the  candidates  affected  shall 
stand  upon  the  rank  list. 

(The  article  was  given  this  form  above  by  a  Resolution 
of  December  27,  1897.  In  the  original  regulations  of 
July  20,  1893,  it  read  as  follows:  — 

(For  the  purpose  of  making  up  the  rank  list  of  those  who 
have  passed  the  second  half  of  the  examination,  the  marks, 
which  are  not  lower  than  5,  received  in  the  voluntary  sub- 
jects shall  be  added  to  the  candidates'  marks  in  the  six 
required  subjects.) 

(In  case  of  an  equality  of  marks  the  order  of  the  rank 
list  shall  be  regulated  by  the  total  of  the  marks  obtained  in 
the  required  subjects.  If  these  total  marks  are  also  the 
same,  the  commission  shall  determine  the  order  in  which 
these  candidates  shall  stand  upon  the  rank  list.) 


GRAND  EXAMINATION   FOR  OFFICIALS      169 

Article  12 

To  the  report  which  it  makes  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies,  or  to  the  Governor  General,  the  commission 
shall  append :  — 

1.  For  each  of  the  parts  of  the  examination  a  list 
whereon  shall  be  stated  the  names  of  all  the  persons 
examined,  the  marks  given  to  them  in  the  several  subjects, 
and  the  total  of  these  marks  for  each  candidate; 

2.  A  rank  list  of  those  who  have  passed  the  second  part 
of  the  examination,  made  up  in  accordance  with  the  fore- 
going article. 

Article  13 

The  commission  shall  present  to  the  Minister  of  the 
Colonies,  or  to  the  Governor  General,  the  certificates  of 
those  who  have  passed  the  examination,  in  order  that  they 
may  be  inspected  and  delivered  by  him. 

All  persons  examined,  even  those  who  have  not  passed, 
shall  receive  from  the  secretary  of  the  commission  as 
speedily  as  possible  information  of  the  result  of  their 
examination  in  each  subject. 


PROGRAMME 
FIRST  PART 

1.  The  Geography  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  —  Knowledge  of 
the  situation,  the  natural  features  and  the  climate  of  the 
chief  islands  and  groups  of  islands  of  the  Indian  Archi- 
pelago, of  the  situation  of  the  chief  mountains  and  streams, 
and  of  the  general  lines  of  the  administration  subdivisions. 

2.  The  Knowledge  of  the  Codes  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  — 
Knowledge  of  the  chief  contents  of  the  General  Principles 
of  Legislation  and  of  the  Civil  Code;  a  grasp  of  the  most 


170  APPENDIX 

important  institutions  governed  by  the  Commercial  Code, 
and  of  the  forms  of  European  Civil  and  Criminal  Proced- 
ure; knowledge  of  the  chief  contents  of  the  Internal 
Regulations  and  of  the  two  Penal  Codes  of  the  Indies. 

3.  T%e  Introduction  to  the  Religious  Laivs,  Institutions, 
and  Customs  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  —  A  brief  survey  of  the 
origin  and  extension  of  Islam,  especially  with  regard  to  the 
Dutch  Indies;  a  knowledge  of  the  chief  sects  of  Islam;  a 
little  knowledge  of  the  dogmas  of  the  present  orthodox 
Mohammedans;  a  little  knowledge  of  the  character  and 
historical  growth  of  the  Mohammedan  Law;  a  little  knowl- 
edge of  the  religious  and  other  laws  of  the  Mohammedans 
in  the  Dutch  Indies. 

4.  The  Elements  of  the  Malay  Language.  —  The  written 
translation,  with  the  help  of  a  dictionary,  of  a  selection, 
not  difficult,  printed  in  Malay  characters. 

5.  The  Elements  of  the  Javanese  Language.  — The  writ- 
ten translation,  with  the  help  of  a  dictionary,  of  an  easy 
selection  printed  in  Javanese  characters. 


SECOND   PART 

1.  The  History  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  —  Knowledge  in 
broad  traits  of  the  fortunes  of  the  chief  races  that  dwell  in 
the  Indian  Archipelago,  and  the  chief  facts  which  relate  to 
the  establishment  and  extension  of  the  Dutch  power  in  the 
Archipelago,  and  more  especially  of  the  fortunes  of  the 
Dutch  Indies  since  the  administration  of  Marshall  Daen- 
dels. 

2.  The  Geography  and  Ethnology  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  — 
Knowledge  of  the  chief  products  of  the  Dutch  Indies; 
knowledge  of  the  principle  traits,  customs,  the  social  and 
economic  condition,  and  the  degree  of  civilization,  of  the 
chief  peoples  of  the  Dutch  Indies;  some  knowledge  of  the 


GRAND   EXAMINATION   FOR    OFFICIALS       I /I 

religion  and  institutions  of  the  non-Mohammedan  peoples 
of  the  Dutch  Indies. 

3.  The  Religious  Laws,  Institutions,  and  Customs  of  the 
Dutch  Indies.  — Knowledge  of  the  chief  institutions  of 
the  followers  of  Islam  in  the  Dutch  Indies,  studied  in  con- 
nection with  the  Mohammedan  Law. 

4.  The  Political  Institutions  of  the  Dutch  Indies.  —  Ac- 
quaintance with  the  chief  provisions  of  the  Regulations  of 
Government  and  of  the  other  organic  laws  and  general 
ordinances  derived  from  the  Constitution  and  the  Regula- 
tions of  Government;  knowledge  of  the  chief  provisions 
relating  to  administration,  justice,  accounts,  taxes,  and  the 
various  other  branches  of  the  administration;  all  these,  as 
far  as  possible,  in  their  origin  and  development. 

5.  The  Malay  Language. — Readiness  in  the  written 
translation  of  a  composition  from  Dutch  into  Malay,  and 
in  oral  translation  of  a  piece  of  prose  from  Malay  into 
Dutch;  knowledge  of  the  fundamental  principles  of  the 
language,  coupled  with  a  good  pronunciation  and  facility 
at  reading  without  special  preparation  selections  of  Malay 
or  letters  in  different  hands;  some  readiness  at  expressing 
oneself  also  in  the  common  vernacular. 

6.  The  Javanese  Language.  —  Readiness  in  the  transla- 
tion of  a  piece  of  prose,  not  difificult,  from  Javanese  into 
Dutch;  some  facility  in  expressing  oneself  in  the  Javanese 
language,  shown  by  the  written  translation  of  some  easy 
phrases  from  Dutch  into  Javanese;  knowledge  of  the  funda- 
mental principles  of  the  language,  coupled  with  a  good 
pronunciation;  readiness  in  reading,  without  special  prep- 
aration, written  Javanese  selections  or  letters  in  different 
hands. 

7.  Other  Native  Languages  of  the  Dutch  Indies. — The 
same  requirements  as  those  prescribed  for  Javanese  under 
No.  6. 


CHAPTER  III 

FRANCE 

Among  the  nations  France  is  peculiar  in  having  a 
gap  in  her  colonial  history.  She  is  one  of  the  oldest 
and  one  of  the  youngest  of  colonizing  powers ;  for 
within  the  last  few  years  she  has  attempted  to  return 
to  the  policy  of  expansion  which  marked  the  most 
brilUant  period  of  the  monarchy.  But  between  the 
two  epochs  the  breach  is  so  complete  that  no  tradi- 
tions survived,  and  hence  in  describing  her  present 
condition  it  is  not  necessary  to  look  back  into  the 
past.  Even  in  recent  times,  indeed,  her  policy  in 
regard  to  the  matter  now  under  consideration,  the 
selection  and  training  of  colonial  officials,  has  been  by 
no  means  continuous ;  and  the  system  now  employed 
has  been  in  existence  only  a  few  years, 

COCHIN-CHINA,    1861-1881 

As  Algeria  is  treated  rather  as  an  outlying  part 
of  France  than  as  a  true  colonial  dependency,  and  as 
the  West  Indies  are  a  sort  of  political  Topsy  that  no- 
body can  do  anything  with,  the  modern  colonial 
history  of  France  begins  with  the  occupation  of 
Cochin-China  in    1861.^      At   first   the   government 

^  Chailley-Bert  describes  the  method  of  recruiting  officials  in  Cochin- 
China  from  1861  to  1881  in  the  Compte  Rendu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  278-312. 

172 


COCHIN-CHINA,  1861-1881  1/3 

there  was  purely  a  military  one  under  the  charge  of 
an  Admiral  of  the  Navy.  As  early  as  1863,  how- 
ever, a  regular  system  of  recruiting  the  Inspectors,  as 
the  French  officials  in  the  country  were  called,  was 
adopted;  and  although  they  were  all  military  or 
naval  officers,  they  were  selected  for  the  service  by 
means  of  an  examination  which  was  in  theory,  at 
least,  competitive.  This  involved  some  preparatory 
study,  which  bore  upon  the  history  and  geography  of 
the  country,  and  the  native  languages,  laws,  and  polit- 
ical institutions.  After  ten  years  of  trial  this  sys- 
tem broke  down,  because  the  expectations  which  the 
officers  had  been  led  to  form  of  the  treatment  of  the 
colonial  civil  servants  were  not  fulfilled,  and  hence  it 
became  hard  to  obtain  recruits ;  and  also  because  the 
accumulation  in  the  same  hands  of  judicial,  admin- 
istrative, and  financial  powers,  offended  the  national 
sense  of  political  propriety. 

In  1873,  therefore,  the  service  was  reorganized, 
and  placed  this  time  on  a  civil  instead  of  a  military 
basis.  It  was  provided  that  the  provincial  adminis- 
trators of  any  grade  should  be  chosen  from  those  of 
the  grade  below  by  a  system  in  which  a  competitive 
examination  played  a  large  part,^  and  that  the  lowest 
grade  should  be  recruited  as  follows :  ^  the  Governor 
was  to  designate  at  his  discretion  among  young  men 

^  Decree  of  February  10,  1873,  Art.  6;  ArrSte  of  the  Governor, 
January  25,  1875,  Arts.  9-21. 

2  Decree  of  February  10,  1873,  Arts.  4,  5;  Arrfite  of  August  29, 
1873. 


174  FRANCE 

possessing  any  one  of  a  list  of  educational  diplomas,  a 
number  of  probationers,  who  were  thereupon  to  enter 
a  college  established  for  the  purpose  at  Saigon,  and 
after  finishing  the  course  of  study  there  were  to  be 
selected  for  the  service  by  means  of  a  competitive  ex- 
amination. The  course  at  the  college  was  a  single  year, 
and  besides  subjects  dealing  directly  with  the  colony 
it  included  the  general  principles  of  political  econ- 
omy. M.  Chailley-Bert,  while  praising  this  system 
as  a  whole,  points  out  that  the  principle  of  competi- 
tion was  applied  at  the  wrong  point;  that  it  ought 
to  have  been  used  as  a  test  for  entrance  to  the  col- 
lege, and  ought  not  to  have  been  used  as  a  condition 
of  promotion  in  the  service.^  The  fact  is  that  a  com- 
petitive examination  as  applied  to  a  colonial  service 
is  chiefly  a  means  of  elimination,  and  its  real  useful- 
ness is  in  selecting  candidates  of  good  promise.  It 
is  not  a  test  of  administrative  capacity.  These  prin- 
ciples should  be  borne  in  mind  in  framing  any  system 
of  appointing  colonial  officials,  and  it  was  partly  the 
failure  to  recognize  them  in  1873  that  brought  about 
the  overthrow  of  the  organization  then  established  in 
Cochin-China.  The  system  of  1873  was,  however, 
also  attacked  on  other  grounds.  It  had  not  fully 
carried  out  the  doctrine  of  the  separation  of  powers, 
and  the  argument  was  made  that,  after  the  progress 
which  had  been  accomplished,  it  was  proper  to  bring 
the  institutions  of  the  colony  more  nearly  into  accord 

*  Compte  Rendu,  op.  cit.,  pp.  291-292,  294. 


COCHIN-CHINA,  1861-1881  1 75 

with  those  of  the  parent  State,^  —  an  insidious  fallacy 
to  which  democracies  are  particularly  prone.  More- 
over, besides  the  provincial  administrators,  to  whom 
the  Decree  of  1873  applied,  there  were  a  large  num- 
ber of  officials,  mainly  clerical,  in  the  central  bureaus 
of  the  colony,  and  the  Government  wanted  to  consoli- 
date them  all  into  a  single  service.  The  result  was 
that  the  attempt  to  maintain  a  picked  corps  of  admin- 
istrators was  given  up,  competitive  examination  and 
the  college  at  Saigon  were  abolished,  and  it  was  pro- 
vided that  the  service  should  be  recruited  by  free 
selection,  subject  only  to  the  condition  that  the  candi- 
date must  have  a  "baccalaur^at."^  At  the  same  time 
the  retiring  pensions  were  diminished,  and  in  conse- 
quence of  all  these  changes  there  was  a  falling  off  in 
the  calibre  of  the  men  who  entered  the  service. 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL 

It  was  several  years  before  another  genuine  effort 
was  made  to  improve  the  quality  of  the  colonial  offi- 
cials. But  in  1887  the  services  of  both  the  African 
and  Asiatic  colonies  were  reorganized,  and  a  couple 
of  years  later  the  Minister  of  the  Colonies  said  in  a 

^  "  Le  moment  est  venu  .  .  .  de  remplacer,  en  un  mot,  le  regime 
de  domination  par  un  regime  d'administration  directe,  se  rapprochant 
autant  que  possible  du  droit  commun.  .  .  .  Ainsi  se  trouvera  defini- 
tivement  accomplie  la  separation  des  pouvoirs  .  .  .  qu'exige  I'appli- 
cation  des  principes  d'une  saine  administration."  —  Report  preceding 
the  Decree  of  May  4,  1881. 

2  This  does  not  correspond  exactly  to  anything  in  this  country.  Its 
nearest  equivalent,  though  somewhat  lower,  is  the  diploma  of  a  Latin 
or  High  SchooL 


176  FRANCE 

report  to  the  President  that  "  sending  to  the  colonies 
administrators  insufficiently  prepared  for  the  task  to 
be  entrusted  to  them  presented  the  gravest  inconven- 
iences ;  no  doubt  the  choice  had  fallen,  almost  always 
at  least,  upon  honorable  men,  full  of  activity,  anxious 
to  succeed.  But  when  they  were  made  to  start  in 
subordinate  positions,  recruiting  became  difficult,  and 
they  began,  moreover,  to  render  services  only  when 
they  were  already  wearied  by  the  climate ;  when,  on 
the  other  hand,  they  were  immediately  called  to  higher 
positions,  their  insufficiency  resulted  in  failures,  some- 
times deplorable  for  the  work  of  colonization."  ^  He 
proposed,  therefore,  an  entirely  new  departure  by 
the  foundation  in  Paris  of  a  special  college  for  train- 
ing the  future  civil  servants  of  the  dependencies. 

Now  there  had  existed  at  Paris  since  1885  an  insti- 
tution known  at  first  as  the  Cambodian,  and  since 
1888  as  the  Colonial,  School,  but  it  was  merely  a 
place  where  natives,  sent  to  France  to  be  educated, 
could  live  and  be  taken  care  of  while  they  were  pur- 
suing their  studies.  This  feature  of  the  institution, 
it  may  be  remarked,  has  continued  ever  since,  al- 
though it  has  nothing  in  common  with  the  training 
of  the  officials,  and  the  connection  of  the  two  under 
the  same  roof  is  merely  fortuitous.  The  whole  num- 
ber of  persons  in  what  is  called  the  Native  Section  is 
only  about  a  score,  and  they  take  no  part  in  the  work 
of  the  other  students.  In  fact,  only  two  instructors 
are  maintained  at  the  School  for  their  benefit,  one  in 

^  Report  preceding  the  Decrees  of  November  23,  1889. 


THE   COLONIAL   SCHOOL  177 

mathematics  and  the  other  in  French.  The  School 
is  still  in  the  main  a  place  where  they  can  reside 
while  they  pursue  their  studies  elsewhere,  while  the 
French  students  are  taught  at  the  school,  but  live 
outside. 

Of  this  institution  the  Government  proposed  to 
make  use,  by  adding  to  it  a  department  for  giving  to 
Frenchmen  the  training  required  to  fit  them  for  the 
civil  service  of  the  colonies.  As  originally  organ- 
ized,i  candidates  holding  a  "  baccalaureat "  were,  after 
an  inquiry  into  their  merits,  admitted  to  this  depart- 
ment by  the  Minister,  at  his  discretion ;  and  the 
course  was  three  years,  except  for  bachelors  of  law,^ 
for  whom  it  was  two  years.  But,  owing  to  criticisms 
that  arose,  a  commission  which  was  appointed  in  1896 
reported ;  that  while  the  School  ought  to  be  main- 
tained as  the  basis  of  recruiting  colonial  officials, 
it  ought  not  to  be  given  a  monopoly ;  that  the  course 
ought  to  be  reduced  to  two  years ;  and  that  admission 
ought  to  be  by  competitive  examination.^  These  rec- 
ommendations were  put  into  effect  by  a  decree  of 
April  2,  1896.  Since  that  time,  however,  a  number 
of  other  changes  in  detail  have  been  made,  relating 
to  the  government  of  the  School,  the  requisites  for 
admission,  and  the  courses  for  the  various  colonial 
careers.     The  French  maintain  that  one  advantage 

1  Decret  relatif  au  fonctionnement  de  I'ecole  coloniale,  November 
23,  1889.     Arts.  10,  12. 
"  Licencies  en  droit. 
•  Repoit  of  the  Minister  preceding  the  Decree  of  April  2,  1896. 

N 


178  FRANCE 

of  legislation  by  executive  ordinance  is  the  greater 
ease  with  which  changes  can  be  made  to  meet  the 
requirements  of  experience  or  of  changing  conditions ; 
and  whether  such  a  result  is  good  or  bad  it  has  cer- 
tainly been  attained  in  this  case.  The  School,  in 
fact,  has  neither  been  founded  nor  regulated  by  any 
statute,  and  hence  a  rapid  succession  of  new  de- 
crees, which  is  certainly  a  source  of  no  little  difficulty 
to  the  investigator,  if  it  does  not  damage  the  stability 
of  the  instruction  or  the  prospects  of  the  students. 
No  less  than  three  decrees  directly  affecting  the 
School,  or  the  careers  open  to  its  graduates,  have 
been  passed  between  the  ist  of  January  and  the 
i6th  of  September  of  the  present  year  (1899),  ^^^ 
therefore  in  describing  the  present  conditions  of  the 
institution  one  can  speak  only  of  things  as  they  are 
at  the  moment  of  writing. 

The  Government  of  the  School 

The  governing  boards  of  the  School  are  a  Council 
of  Administration  comprised  of  nine  members  ap- 
pointed for  three  years  by  the  Minister  of  the  Colo- 
nies; and  a  Council  of  Improvement,  composed  of 
these  nine,  of  the  Director  of  the  School,  of  five 
heads  of  departments  in  the  Colonial  Office,  and  of 
twenty-five  other  persons  selected  by  the  Minister  of 
the  Colonies,  partly  at  large  and  partly  from  certain 
categories  of  officials  and  professors.^  The  Council 
of  Improvement,  which  makes  an  annual  report, 
*  Decree  of  January  26,  1899,  Arts.  I,  2. 


THE   COLONIAL  SCHOOL  179 

must  be  consulted  about  all  ordinances  affecting  the 
organization  and  working  of  the  School,  about  the 
general  programme  of  the  courses,  and  about  the 
selection  of  the  Director  and  Instructors.^  The 
Council  of  Administration,  most  of  whose  members 
are,  in  fact,  Government  officials,  has  much  larger 
powers.^  It  inspects  the  School,  prepares  the 
budget,  arranges  the  courses  of  study,  determines 
the  number  of  professors,  nominates  them  together 
with  the  Director,*  and  fixes  their  salaries ;  subject, 
however,  in  all  cases  to  the  approval  of  the  Minister 
of  the  Colonies. 

The  School  is  supported  mainly  by  its  revenues 
from  three  sources  :  the  income  of  a  fund  given  to  it 
a  number  of  years  ago ;  the  payments  made  by  the 
colonies  on  account  of  the  students  in  the  native 
section ;  and  the  fees  of  the  other  students,  for  each 
student  pays  a  fee  of  150  francs  a  year.  This  does 
not,  however,  cover  all  his  charges,  for  he  pays,  in 
addition,  120  francs  for  special  instruction  in  fencing, 
riding  etc.,  and  300  francs  to  the  Faculty  of  Law  for 
courses  he  is  obliged  to  follow  there.  The  teaching 
force  of  the  School  seems  quite  out  of  proportion  to 
the  number  of  students.  There  are  at  present  nearly 
thirty  professors  and  other  instructors;  but  in  fact 

1  Id.,  Art.  3.  2  cf,  Arrfite  of  January  30,  1899. 

*  In  the  case  of  nominations,  the  procedure  seems  needlessly  elabo- 
rate. The  Council  of  Administration  proposes  in  alphabetical  order 
three  names.  The  Council  of  Improvement  arranges  these  in  the 
order  of  its  preference,  and  submits  them  to  the  Minister,  who  makes 
the  appointment.     Id.,  Art.  7. 


l8o  FRANCE 

almost  all  of  them  are  professors  at  some  other  insti- 
tution also,  or  officials  of  the  Council  of  State  or  the 
Colonial  Office. 

Qualifications  for  Admission  to  the  School 

To  be  admissible,  an  applicant  must  be  a  French- 
man, between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-two, 
of  good  physical  strength.  He  must  also  be  the 
holder  of  a  bachelor's  diploma  or  one  of  a  higher 
order,  or  must  hold  a  certificate  of  studies  from 
one  of  the  superior  commercial  schools,  or  the  Agri- 
cultural Institute,  or  a  certificate  that  he  has  been 
admitted  to  the  Naval  School  among  the  first  hun- 
dred and  fifty  students.  ^  As  a  matter  of  fact,  almost 
all  the  men  who  enter  the  School  have  taken  at  a 
lyc^e  the  bachelor's  diploma  in  the  classical  or  the 
modern  course,  and  some  of  them  have  also  received 
one  of  the  other  diplomas  or  certificates.  The  per- 
sons so  qualified  have  a  right  to  compete  for  admis- 
sion ;  for  the  number  of  students  admitted  to  each 
section  in  the  School  is  fixed  annually  by  the  Minis- 
ter at  a  number  exceeding  by  one-third  the  probable 
vacancies  in  the  service  to  which  that  section  leads,^ 
and  the  men  to  be  admitted  are  selected  by  a  com- 
petitive examination.  One  evil  of  the  Dutch  system 
is  thus  avoided.  The  competition  comes  at  the  begin- 
ning, instead  of  at  the  end,  of  the  period  of  special 
training,  and  a  man  who  has  gone  through  that  train- 
ing with  industry  and  character  is  almost  certain  of 
1  Decree  of  July  21,  1898.  ^  Decree  of  April  2,  1896,  Art.  3. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  l8l 

employment,  —  the  margin  of  one-third  being  only 
about  enough  to  cover  the  natural  elimination  from 
sickness,  indolence,  and  misconduct. 

The  Competitive  Examination  for  Admission 

Perhaps  it  would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  the 
competition  comes  near  the  beginning  of  the  special 
training,  for  the  entrance  examination,  in  accordance 
with  French  tradition,  itself  requires  a  certain  amount 
of  special  preparation  upon  the  very  subjects  that  are 
studied  in  the  School,  The  examination,  which  takes 
place  every  year  in  October,^  consists  of  two  parts.^ 
The  first,  which  must  be  passed,  but  does  not  count 
toward  the  competition,  covers  the  subjects  taught  in 
the  first  year  of  study  for  a  diploma  in  law.^  The 
second,  which  is  the  competitive  part  of  the  examina- 
tion, consists  of  *  — 

A  written  composition,  lasting  four  hours,  upon 
the  history  of  French  and  foreign  colonization 
up  to  1815  ; 
A  written  composition  lasting  three  hours,  upon  the 
history  of  European  colonization  in  America  to 
the  present  day,  except  the  existing  French  colo- 
nies there ; 

^  ArrSte  of  July  21,  1896.     Art.  I. 

2  Decree  of  July  21,  1898,  Art.  5.  "Art.  5." 

•  From  this  the  men  who  have  already  passed  an  examination  in 
the  studies  of  that  year  are  excused. 

*  See  also  ArrSte  of  July  25,  1898.  Political  Economy  was  formerly 
among  the  sul)jects  of  the  composition,  but  it  was  dropped  by  the 
Decree  of  July  21,  1898. 


1 82  FRANCE 

A  dictation  and  a  translation  (each  lasting  an  hour 
and  a  half)  from  English,  German,  or  Spanish, 
the  English  counting  twice  as  much  as  either  of 
the  others,  and  the  candidate  being  at  liberty  to 
offer  more  than  one  language  ; 

An  oral  examination  in  physical  geography,  with 
especial  attention  to  the  French  colonies. 

An  oral  examination  in  topography. 

An  oral  examination  in  practical  construction  in  the 
colonies,  including  the  construction  and  mainte- 
nance of  roads ;  materials  of  construction ;  rivers 
and  canals ;  and  water  supply  and  sanitation. 

The  programme  of  the  examination  is  prescribed 
in  greater  detail  by  orders  of  the  Minister,^  and  that 
part  of  it  relating  to  the  history  of  European  coloni- 
zation in  America  will  show  the  extent  of  the  infor- 
mation required.     It  is  as  follows  :  — 

America  toward   the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. —  English  and  Spanish  colonization. 
North   America.  —  The   English   domination  in 
Canada.     Formation   of    the    Dominion.     Con- 
temporary Canada. 

Independence  of  the  United  States.  The  Constitu- 
tion. The  Territorial  formation.  The  Monroe 
Doctrine.  Development  of  the  American  Union 
in  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  Antilles,  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico.  Revolt  of 
the  Spanish  Colonies  on  the  mainland.  Their 
Independence ;  their  constitutions. 

1  ArrStes  of  January  12,  1897  *°^  March  16,  1899. 


THE   COLONIAL   SCHOOL  1 83 

Mexico  and  Central  America.  Contemporary  South 
America. 

This  is  certainly  a  broad  field,  though  doubtless  the 
knowledge  of  details  required  is  not  very  great,  for  it  is 
stated  that  a  clever  young  man  finds  no  difficulty  in 
preparing  himself,  even  without  assistance. 

The  examination  being  competitive,  one  would  ex- 
pect the  marks  to  be  awarded  strictly  according  to 
the  merit  of  the  candidates'  answers,  but  this  is  not 
exactly  the  case.  In  order  to  recruit  men  of  superior 
education,  candidates  who  have  taken  their  degree 
in  law,  or  who  have  studied  at  the  Polytechnic 
School,  or  who  hold  diplomas  from  any  one  of  a  list 
of  other  institutions,  are  given  an  additional  credit 
equal  to  one-sixth  of  the  marks  they  have  obtained 
at  the  examination.^  Such  an  exception  to  the  prin- 
ciple of  equal  competition  strikes  a  foreigner  as 
somewhat  strange. 

Preparation  for  the  Examination 

The  candidates  may  prepare  for  the  competitive 
examination  in  any  way  they  please.  Some  of  them, 
and  occasionally  the  most  successful,  study  by  them- 
selves, without  any  instruction  at  all.  But  the  great 
majority  of  them  attend  the  Preparatory  Section  at 
the  School  itself.  This  was  established  in  1897  by 
the  same  decree  which  shortened  the  course  to  two 
years   and    provided   for   admission   by   competitive 

1  Decree  of  July  21,  1898,  last  clause  of  Art.  5. 


1 84  FRANCE 

examination.^  Its  length  is  one  year,  and  it  covers 
precisely  the  subjects  of  the  examination  save  that 
a  course  of  physical  training,  consisting  of  riding  and 
fencing,  must  also  be  taken. 

Subject  to  the  conditions  of  being  French  citizens 
between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  twenty-one,  and  of 
producing  a  certificate  of  good  moral  character,  etc., 
students  are  admitted  to  the  Preparatory  Section  at 
the  pleasure  of  the  Council  of  Administration,  and 
their  number  is  naturally  considerably  larger  than 
that  of  the  candidates  to  be  admitted  by  the  examina- 
tion to  the  School  proper.  In  fact,  the  career  seems 
to  be  attracting  more  and  more  competitors;  for  in 
1897  there  were  about  140  candidates  for  the  thirty- 
three  or  thirty-four  places  in  the  School ;  while  in  1 898 
they  increased  to  about  180,  and  in  1899  there  were 
expected  to  be  about  200.  This  indicates,  of  course, 
a  large  proportion  of  men  disappointed ;  but  in  com- 
paring this  system  with  that  of  the  Dutch  it  must  be 
observed,  first,  that  the  men  are  much  younger,  nine- 
teen being  about  the  average  age  of  entrance  to  the 
School ;  second,  that  the  study  preceding  the  compe- 
tition is  only  one  year ;  and  third,  that  the  list  of 
subjects,  although  all  chosen  with  a  view  to  their 
usefulness  to  a  colonial  official,  are  by  no  means  so 
purely  technical  as  those  taught  at  Delft,  and  are 
more  useful  for  the  purpose  of  a  general  mental  cul- 
ture. The  unsuccessful  candidate  wastes,  therefore, 
far  less  time  in  France  than  in  Holland. 

1  Decree  of  April  2,  1896. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  185 

The  Sections  or  Courses  at  the  School 

The  instruction  at  the  Scrhool  proper  is  divided  into 
sections,  two  of  which,  the  Native  and  the  Prepara- 
tory Sections,  we  have  already  considered.  Besides 
these  there  is  a  Commercial  Section  intended  to  fit 
young  men  for  commerce  or  agriculture  in  the  colo- 
nies. The  number  of  students  in  it  is  not  limited, 
but  it  does  not  interest  us  here;  nor  has  it,  indeed, 
developed  much  importance,  as  the  number  of  its 
members  is  trifling.  In  1899,  for  example,  it  gradu- 
ated only  two  men,  and  this  is  hardly  surprising  in 
view  of  the  fact  that  it  has  a  rival  in  the  Ecole  des 
Hautes  Etudes  Commercialese  and  especially  when  we 
consider  the  slow  progress  of  industrial  intercourse 
between  France  and  her  colonies.  The  School  ad- 
mits also  special  students,  known  as  auditeurs  litres  1 
for  the  pursuit  of  special  branches  of  instruction ; 
but  the  matters  that  concern  this  inquiry  are  the  four 
Administrative  Sections,  so  called  because  they  lead 
to  the  various  branches  of  the  colonial  civil  service. 
They  are  the  Commissary  Section,  —  for  the  com- 
missariat of  the  Army  and  Navy  in  the  colonies  has 
an  anomalous  position,  half  military  and  half  civil, 
and  is  recruited  entirely  from  civilians,  the  major 
part  of  whom  are  furnished  by  the  Colonial  School  — 
the  Indo-Chinese  Section,  which  prepares  officials 
for  the  colonies  indicated  by  its  name ;  the  African 
Section,  which  educates  civil  servants  for  the  African 

1  Decree  of  April  2,  1896,  Art.  15. 


1 86  FRANCE 

colonies,  including  Madagascai,  but  not  including 
Algeria  or  Tunis ;  and  finally  the  Penitentiary  Sec- 
tion, which  provides  administrators  for  the  penal 
colonies. 

The  number  of  students  to  be  admitted  to  each  of 
these  four  sections  is  fixed  by  the  Minister  on  the 
1st  of  February  of  each  year,  and  exceeds  by  one- 
third  the  number  of  probable  vacancies  in  the  service 
reserved  for  graduates  of  the  School.^  The  candi- 
dates are  of  course  admitted  in  the  order  of  their 
rank  at  the  competitive  examination,  and  the  suc- 
cessful ones  are  allowed  in  the  same  order  to  choose 
the  section  they  will  enter.  The  Indo-Chinese  is 
generally  the  favorite,  and  the  African  comes  next ; 
although  a  man  with  high  rank  sometimes  chooses 
the  Penitentiary  Section,  not  that  any  one  wants  to 
go  to  the  penal  colonies,  but  because  one  or  two 
positions  in  the  Colonial  Office  at  Paris  are  given 
each  year  to  the  graduates  with  the  highest  general 
average  of  marks,  and  as  the  Penitentiary  Section 
has  few  courses,  the  men  in  it  have  a  good  chance  to 
rank  high. 

The  number  of  students  admitted  each  year  is 
about  thirty-three  or  thirty-four,  and  of  these  a  couple 
fail  to  pass  the  annual  examinations,  and  a  couple 
more  leave  for  other  reasons,  so  that  there  graduate 
annually  about  twenty-five  men.  Thus  in  1899  nine 
men  obtained  a  degree  in  the  Commissary  Section, 
ten  in  the  Indo-Chinese  Section,  five  in  the  African 

1  Decree  of  April  2,  1896,  Art.  3. 


THE   COLONIAL   SCHOOL  18/ 

Section,  and  one  in  the  Penitentiary  Section.  These 
numbers  are  not  great,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  they  fur- 
nish in  the  largest  service  of  all,  the  African,  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  total  number  of  recruits.  The 
numbers  are  indeed  about  as  small  as  they  could  be 
without  seriously  impairing  the  value  of  the  School. 

The  Studies  in  the  Different  Sections 

Each  of  the  four  administrative  sections  is  designed 
to  train  officials  for  a  different  colonial  career,  and 
hence  each  of  them  contains  special  courses  adapted 
to  that  career ;  but  there  are  also  a  number  of  studies, 
known  as  the  general  courses,  which  are  common  to 
all  the  sections  alike.^  Such  are  the  comparative 
study  of  the  methods  of  colonization  in  the  various 
French  colonies,  and  of  the  colonies  of  other  nations 
in  the  East;  the  general  organization,  the  administra- 
tive law,  and  the  public  accounts,  of  the  French  col- 
onies; their  economic  institutions ;  colonial  products; 
and  colonial  hygiene.  The  study  of  one  modern  lan- 
guage is  also  required,  and  the  students  are  obliged 
to  attend  and  pass  an  examination  each  year  upon  the 
course  of  law  taught  at  the  Faculty  of  Law.  This 
last  provision,  which  was  added  in  1898,  amounts 
practically  to  an  obligation  to  qualify  for  the  diploma 
of  Licentiate  in  Law,  corresponding  to  our  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Laws,  and  the  reason  the  diploma  itself  is 
not  required  is  that  it  is  given  only  to  men  who  have 
taken  at  a  lyc^e  a  baccalaureate  in  the  classical  course, 

^  See  the  appendix  to  this  chapter. 


I 88  FRANCE 

whereas  the  Colonial  School  admits  candidates  who 
have  taken  their  baccalaureate  in  the  modern  course, 
and  even  men  from  other  institutions  who  have  taken 
no  baccalaureate  at  all.  The  School  could  not  there- 
fore require  the  Licentiate  itself,  but  requires  the 
passing  of  the  examinations  whereby  it  is  conferred. 
The  course  for  the  Licentiate  is  three  years,  and  the 
students  have  time  to  follow  it  during  the  preparatory 
year  and  the  two  years  at  the  School,  the  lecture 
hours  being  so  arranged  as  to  make  this  possible. 
An  excellent  provision,  which  can  hardly  fail  to  have 
an  influence  for  good  upon  the  general  training  of  the 
students,  is  that  which  requires  each  of  them  to  pre- 
sent every  year  a  summary  or  translation  of  some 
work  dealing  with  colonies,  and  published  in  a  for- 
eign language.  They  are  also  expected  to  give  an 
abstract  of  the  lectures  given  at  the  School  from 
time  to  time  by  explorers  and  by  colonial  officials. 
For  these  exercises  they  are  credited  with  marks 
which  seem,  however,  too  small  in  proportion  to  the 
attention  they  ought  to  receive.^ 

The  students  are,  moreover,  obliged  to  take  fenc- 
ing lessons  at  the  School,  and  to  learn  to  ride  at  a 
riding  school ;  and  in  order  to  sharpen  their  interest 
in  these  exercises  a  small  mark  is  given  for  them, 
which,  like  the  marks  in  the  studies,  counts  toward 

^  The  maximum  mark  for  each  of  the  summaries  or  translations  is 
20,  and  for  all  the  abstracts  of  the  lectures  together,  it  is  also  20, 
out  of  a  total  for  all  the  required  general  work  (excluding  the  physi- 
cal training)  of  700. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  189 

the  final  rank  of  the  student  at  graduation.  It  may- 
be added  that  military  drill  is  compulsory  for  all  stu- 
dents who  have  not  yet  performed  their  military  ser- 
vice, and  is  encouraged  in  the  case  of  others  by 
means  of  marks  set  to  the  student's  credit.^ 

It  may  be  observed  that  the  preparatory  course  is 
complementary  to  the  curriculum  of  the  School  itself, 
and  the  two  taken  together  constitute  a  systematic 
three  years'  course  of  study.  In  fact,  the  term  of  the 
School  was  formerly  three  years,  and  when  it  was 
reduced  to  two  years,  and  the  system  of  admission 
by  competitive  examination  was  introduced,  in  1896, 
what  was  really  done  was  to  cut  off  the  first  year, 
transfer  it  to  a  preparatory  course,  and  hold  a  com- 
petitive examination  on  the  work  of  that  year. 

The  special  studies  of  the  four  Administrative  Sec- 
tions are,  of  course,  adapted  exclusively  to  the  col- 
onies which  those  sections  are  intended  to  supply 
with  officials.  Thus,  in  the  Indo-Chinese  Section  are 
taught  the  geography  and  laws  of  that  colony,  and 
the  Chinese  and  Annamite  languages ;  the  Cambo- 
dian tongue  also  for  those  who  wish  to  take  it  for  the 
sake  of  additional  marks.  The  special  subjects  of 
the  African  Section  are  similar,  the  languages  being 
Arabic   and    Malagassy,  while  Mohammedan  law  is 

1  The  Colonial  School  was  not  in  existence  at  the  time  the  law 
was  passed  exempting  from  more  than  one  year  of  military  service 
the  students  at  certain  specified  institutions;  and  to  get  the  benefit 
of  this  exemption,  the  students  at  the  School  go  through  the  form 
of  enrolling  themselves  at  the  School  of  Eastern  Languages,  where 
many  of  the  same  studies  are  pursued. 


igo  FRANCE 

also  required.  In  the  Penitentiary  Section  penal 
legislation  and  penitentiary  systems  are  studied; 
and  in  the  Commissary  Section  matters  relating  to 
that  industry.  Curiously  enough  the  amount  of 
special  studies  in  the  different  sections  is  by  no  means 
the  same,  if  the  maximum  of  marks  assigned  to 
them  may  be  taken  as  a  standard.  In  the  African 
Section  the  maximum  for  special  work  is  960,  and  in 
the  Indo-Chinese  Section  it  is  900,  while  in  the  Peni- 
tentiary it  is  480,  and  in  the  Commissariat  it  is  only 
360;  but  this  difference  does  not  prevent  candidates 
from  preferring  the  two  former  careers. 

Rank  at  the  School  and  Appointment  to  the  Service 

The  examinations  at  the  Faculty  of  Law  are  strictly 
pass  examinations  for  the  students  of  the  Colonial 
School.  The  students  must  pass  them  in  order  to 
get  through  the  School,  but  the  marks  they  obtain 
do  not  affect  their  rank  at  graduation.  The  examina- 
tions held  at  the  end  of  every  year  at  the  School  are 
also  primarily  pass  examinations,  but  they  have  a 
competitive  element  in  them  as  well ;  for  although, 
with  the  object  of  giving  employment  to  every  gradu- 
ate, the  number  of  men  admitted  to  the  School  is  fixed 
at  only  one-third  more  than  the  probable  number  of 
vacancies  in  the  different  services,  it  may  happen 
that  there  are  less  vacancies  in  the  service  than  were 
anticipated,  or  that  less  than  one-quarter  of  the  stu- 
dents fall  out  by  the  way.     Now  the  State  does  not, 


THE  COLONIAL   SCHOOL  19I 

like  our  government  in  the  case  of  West  Point  and 

Annapolis,  take  into  the  service  every  man  who  obtains 
a  degree,  but  merely  distributes  the  existing  vacancies 
among  the  graduates  of  the  respective  sections  of  the 
School  in  the  order  of  their  rank.  An  effort  is  indeed 
made  to  find  places  of  some  sort  for  the  others,  in 
the  administrative  service  of  Algiers  or  Tunis,  for 
example,  or  in  the  colonial  positions  outside  of  the 
regular  service;  but  such  posts  are,  of  course,  less 
desirable  than  those  to  which  the  School  is  designed 
to  lead,  and  hence  rank  at  the  School  is  a  matter  of 
real  importance  to  the  student. 

Mere  graduation  is  not  competitive.  It  is  con- 
ditioned upon  obtaining  an  average  of  65  per  cent 
upon  the  whole  course ;  but  in  order  to  be  eligible  for 
a  position  in  the  colonial  service  it  is  also  necessary 
to  get  an  average  of  65  per  cent  on  the  special 
courses  in  one  of  the  sections,  and  further  a  mark  of 
50  per  cent  on  every  one  of  the  special  courses  in 
that  section.^  For  the  purpose  of  appointment 
two  separate  rank  lists  are  made :  one  of  all  the 
graduates  of  the  year,  which  determines  the  order  of 
preference  for  appointment  to  any  vacancies  in  the 
Colonial  Office  in  Paris ;  the  other,  of  the  graduates 
by  sections,  and  this  fixes  the  order  of  appointment 
to  the  colonial  careers  to  which  the  sections  respec- 
tively lead.^ 

1  Arr&te  of  March  24,  1897,  Art.  8. 

2/^.,  and  the  Arretes  of  July  25,  1898,  "  Ar^.  6";  and  October  li, 
1898,  Art.  3. 


192  FRANCE 

Cramming  and  the  Method  of  Marking 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  competitive  element 
tends  to  promote  cramming  for  the  examinations, 
instead  of  the  thorough  grasp  of  principles ;  but  this 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  more  true  of  this  institu- 
tion than  of  any  other  French  school,  and  the  com- 
petition is  said  to  be  no  sharper  than  is  necessary  to 
incite  the  students  to  industry.  Wherever,  as  in  this 
case,  the  examination  is  held  by  persons  other  than 
the  instructors,^  there  is  always  a  danger  of  fostering 
knowledge  of  wide  surface  and  small  depth,  but  the 
method  of  marking  at  the  School  is  elaborately  de- 
vised to  eliminate  chance  and  discourage  cramming. 
It  is  provided,  for  example,  that  the  students  shall  be 
questioned  at  least  once  every  ten  lessons,  or  in  other 
words,  that  a  part  of  the  lessons  shall  be  in  the  form 
of  recitations ;  ^  and  the  mark  of  the  instructor  based 
upon  these  counts  for  one-third  of  the  total  mark  on 
the  course  for  the  year,  the  other  two-thirds  depend- 
ing upon  the  examination.^ 

Estimate  of  the  School 

In  comparing  the  training  at  the  French  Colonial 
School  with  the  education  required  for  entrance  to 
the  Indian  Civil  Service  and  the  Eastern  Cadets,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  with  the  instruction  given  at  the 

1  The  examining  jury  in  each  course  consists  of  the  instructor  and 
two  other  persons.     ArrSte  of  March  24,  1897,  Art.  5. 

2  Id.,  Art.  4. 

•  See  the  tables  in  the  Arrfit6  of  July  25,  1898. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  1 93 

Indies  Institute  at  Delft,  it  is  evident  that  the  French 
official  has  decidedly  less  general  education  than  the 
English  civil  servant ;  but  that,  while  all  his  teaching 
at  the  School  has  a  bearing  on  his  colonial  duties,  it 
is  much  less  exclusively  technical  than  the  teaching 
at  Delft.  The  French  student  takes  most  of  the  legal 
courses  prescribed  for  admission  to  the  bar,  and 
learns  at  least  one  modem  language,  in  addition  to 
his  strictly  colonial  studies ;  and  to  this  extent,  at 
least,  his  education  is  broader  than  that  at  Delft. 

The  only  true  test,  however,  of  any  system  lies  in 
its  results,  and  it  is  still  too  early  to  apply  that  to  the 
French  School.  None  of  its  graduates  have  yet 
reached  positions  of  great  responsibility.  The  oldest 
of  them  have  left  the  School  only  about  eight  years ; 
and  those  who  entered  under  the  present  system  of 
competitive  examination  have  just  begun  to  graduate. 
In  the  absence  of  experience  we  must  rely  upon  the 
opinions  of  the  men  most  competent  to  judge.  The 
permanent  officials  in  the  Colonial  Office,  and  the  Gov- 
ernors of  the  Colonies,  seem  to  be  on  the  whole  very 
well  satisfied  with  the  young  men  sent  out  from  the 
School ;  although  there  is,  of  course,  some  difference  of 
opinion  about  the  proper  amount  of  general  education, 
and  the  length  of  the  theoretical  training  that  a  colo- 
nial official  ought  to  receive.  Some  of  the  Governors, 
indeed,  ask  for  graduates  of  the  School  for  supernu- 
merary posts  even  where  there  are  no  vacancies 
reserved  for  them  by  law.  It  is  admitted  by  every 
one  that  the  quality  of  the  French  colonial  officials 


194  FRANCE 

has  improved  very  much  of  late  years,  and  of  the 
credit  for  this  state  of  things  the  School  may  well 
claim  its  share.  The  men  it  turns  out  are,  indeed, 
said  to  be  superior  in  calibre  to  the  average  of  those 
who  go  into  the  home  civil  service  in  France.  On 
the  other  hand,  I  have  heard  a  critic,  most  unquestion- 
ably competent,  say  that  the  School  suffers,  like  the 
whole  French  system  of  education,  from  too  much 
specialization,  that  its  tendency  is  too  bureaucratic, 
and  that  it  is  likely  to  produce  good  functionaries, 
but  poor  administrators,  men  who  will  not  find  for 
themselves  the  solution  of  new  problems. 

Criticisms  by  M.  Boutmy 

The  most  elaborate  criticism  of  the  School  that  I 
have  seen  is  that  of  M.  Boutmy,  the  eminent  Director 
of  the  Ecole  Libre  des  Sciences  Politiques,  in  a  little 
book  entitled  "  Le  recrutement  des  administrateurs 
coloniaux."  This  was  published  in  1895,  and  some 
of  the  things  he  complained  of  have  since  been 
changed  in  accordance  with  his  views;  but  he  ob- 
jected also  to  the  whole  principle  of  the  School, 
and  proposed  a  plan  for  the  selection  and  training 
of  colonial  officials,  which  resembled  in  many  points 
the  scheme  drawn  up  by  the  recent  Commission  in 
Holland.     No  part  of  this  has  of  course  been  adopted. 

M.  Boutmy's  criticisms  may  be  summed  up  in  two 
main  objections  to  the  nature  of  the  School ;  namely, 
to  its  bureaucratic  tendency,  and  to  its  monopoly,  or 
approximate  monopoly,  of  the  supply  of  colonial  offi- 


THE   COLONIAL  SCHOOL  I95 

cials.  Under  the' first  head  comes  his  complaint  that 
an  excessive  proportion  of  time  is  allotted  to  studies 
supposed  to  be  of  use  to  all  colonial  officials,  without 
regard  to  the  particular  colony  in  which  they  are  to 
serve,  and  too  small  a  part  of  the  time  to  studies  relat- 
ing directly  to  that  colony.  This  was  more  true  at 
first  than  it  is  to-day,  for  he  tells  us  that  by  the  Arr^t6 
of  December  14,  1889,  the  maximum  marks  in  the 
studies  taken  by  all  the  students  aggregated  1070,  and 
those  in  the  special  studies,  relating  to  Indo-China,  for 
example,  added  up  to  only  330;  while  in  the  Arrets 
of  July  25,  1898,  the  former  are  reduced  to  700,  and 
the  latter  increased  to  900.  He  contended  that  such  a 
system  fostered  a  belief  in  the  possibility  of  a  "  colonial 
functionary,"  not  especially  adapted  for  any  one  place, 
but  useful  everywhere,  —  a  belief  which  was  certain 
to  result  in  a  hostility  to  liberty  of  commerce  and 
industry,  and  an  impatience  of  all  opposition  to 
administrative  red  tape.  He  pointed  out  that  the 
existence  of  this  belief  was  shown  by  the  provision 
of  the  Arret6  of  December  14,  1889,  whereby  the 
graduates  of  the  School  were  a^llowed  to  select  the 
colony  in  which  they  would  serve,  in  the  order  of 
their  rank  in  the  common  studies,  regardless  of  their 
knowledge  of  that  particular  colony,  save  only  that 
no  man  could  be  sent  to  Indo-China  unless  he  had 
obtained  a  respectable  mark  in  the  studies  specially 
relating  thereto.^    The  provision  had,  indeed,  been 

^  This  was  also  true  of  the  Commissariat.     Decree  of  November  23, 
1889,  arts.  14,  16. 


196  FRANCE. 

changed  before  he  wrote,  by  the  decree  of  November 
I  o,  1 892,  which  divided  the  School  more  thoroughly  into 
separate  sections,  and  permitted  appointments  to  any 
branch  of  the  colonial  service  (except  the  central  office 
in  Paris)  only  from  the  men  who  had  graduated  in 
the  appropriate  section.  This  obviated  a  part,  but 
only  a  part,  of  his  criticism,  for  he  objected  entirely 
to  training  men  for  the  different  colonies  together; 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  danger  of  cultivat- 
ing too  much  the  bureaucratic  spirit  is  one  that  is  ever 
present  in  any  governmental  school  in  France. 

M.  Boutmy's  second  criticism,  that  is,  his  objection 
to  the  monopoly  of  the  School  in  furnishing  recruits 
to  the  colonial  civil  service,  is  even  more  important, 
because  it  is  connected  with  a  gradual  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  object  the  institution  is  intended 
to  subserve.  Friends  of  the  Colonial  School  attributed 
his  objection  to  the  fact  that  he  was  at  the  head  of  a 
rival  institution  which  had  at  one  time  prepared  men 
for  the  colonial  service.  He  attributed  it  himself  to 
his  experience  in  doing  that  very  work.^  His  objec- 
tion was  based  chiefly  upon  the  ground  that  the  quali- 
ties required  for  a  good  colonial  administrator  are  not 
book  learning,  but  character  and  capacity,  and  that 
any  monopoly  granted  to  a  school  raises  an  artificial 
barrier  against  men  with  the  qualities  needed.  This 
is  undoubtedly  true,  and  if  the  selection  could  be 
intrusted  to  an  all-wise  and  unprejudiced  autocrat, 
free    from    political    influences,    arbitrary    selection 

^  "  Le  recrutement  des  administrateurs  coloniaux,"  p.  9,  Note. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  197 

would,  no  doubt,  be  the  best  method  of  recruiting. 
But  the  real  question,  is  whether  any  other  system 
would  actually  yield  better  results  than  the  Colonial 
School.  However  this  may  be,  the  monopoly  of 
the  School  has,  in  fact,  been  destroyed. 

REDUCTION   IN   THE    POSITIONS   RESERVED   FOR   GRADU- 
ATES  OF   THE    SCHOOL 

As  originally  projected  the  Colonial  School  was 
intended  to  supply  eventually  all  the  colonial  offi- 
cials, save  a  small  number  of  appointments  set  apart 
for  the  promotion  of  deserving  men  in  subordinate 
positions.  This  is  clearly  stated  in  the  report  of  the 
Minister  preceding  the  Decree  of  November  23,  1889 ; 
and  in  the  decree  itself  three-quarters  of  the  vacancies 
after  January  i,  1892,  were  reserved  for  the  graduates,^ 
the  remaining  quarter  being  left  for  promotions  from 
the  lower  service.  The  provision  had,  however,  hardly 
gone  into  effect  when  it  began  to  be  modified. 

The  African  Service 

It  is  unnecessary  to  consider  the  commissariat  and 
the  penal  colonies.  It  will  be  enough  for  our  pur- 
pose to  deal  with  the  African  and  Indo-Chinese  ser- 
vices. In  1 892  2  the  proportion  of  places  reserved 
in  the  different  services  was  readjusted,  but  without 
making  any  great  change  in  the  total.  In  fact,  the 
post  of  administrator  of  the  fourth  class  in  Africa  was 
reserved   exclusively   for   graduates   of   the   School. 

1  Art.  19.  ^  Decree  of  November  10,  1892. 


198  FRANCE 

Later  in  the  same  year,  however,  the  opening  wedge  of 
a  new  system  was  introduced.^  After  reciting  that  it 
would  be  some  time  before  the  increase  of  students  in 
the  School  was  enough  to  supply  the  needs  of  the 
service,  it  was  provided  that  two-thirds  of  the  admin- 
istrators of  the  third  class  should  be  taken  by  promo- 
tion from  the  fourth  class,  and  one-third  from  local 
agents  or  officials  in  the  colonies  or  from  military  or 
naval  officers;  and  a  similar  process  was  to  be  fol- 
lowed in  the  case  of  the  next  grade  above.  In  1894^ 
the  proportion  of  promotions  from  the  fourth  class 
was  increased  to  three-quarters ;  but  it  was  also  pro- 
vided that  sundry  officials  in  the  various  colonies  and 
military  officers  might  be  appointed  to  the  fourth 
class  if  there  were  not  enough  graduates  from  the 
School,  and  in  the  meanwhile  the  number  of  students 
in  the  School  itself  had  been  restricted.^  The  course 
was  then  two  years,  and  while  the  first  year  was 
left  untouched,  the  number  of  students  in  the  second 
year  was  limited  for  all  the  sections  together  to  sixty, 
fifty  by  promotion  from  the  first  year  and  ten  by 
competitive  examination.  In  1896*  these  changes 
were  made  more  systematic,  and  another  element 
was  introduced  by  the  new  Minister  of  the  Colonies, 
M.  Andr6  Lebon,  who  had  himself  been  a  professor 
in  the  Ecole  Libre  des  Sciences  Politiques.  The  pro- 
bational  administrators,  as  the  fourth  class  were  then 

1  Decree  of  December  16, 1892,  and  the  Report  preceding  the  same. 
'  Decree  of  July  24,  1894.  *  By  the  Decree  of  February  2,  1894. 

*  Decree  of  July  4,  1896. 


THE  COLONIAL   SCHOOL  199 

called,  were  to  be  recruited,  one-half  by  the  promo- 
tion of  subordinate  colonial  officials,  one-third  by  an 
open  competition  among  the  graduates  of  certain 
institutions  of  learning,  and  only  one-sixth  from  the 
graduates  of  the  Colonial  School.  The  first  regular 
grade  in  the  service  was  to  be  filled,  three-fifths  by 
promotion  of  the  probationers,  one-fifth  from  explor- 
ers, special  agents,  and  military  and  naval  officers, 
and  the  other  fifth  either  from  explorers  of  exceptional 
merit,  or  by  promotion.  This  principle  of  reserving 
a  fraction,  three-fifths,  and  in  the  higher  grades 
four-fifths,  for  promotion,  and  the  rest  for  explorers 
and  military  officers,  was  modified  and  extended 
in  its  details  a  couple  of  years  later,^  and  is  now 
carried  throughout  the  hierarchy,  the  rank  required 
of  the  military  men  rising  with  the  grade.  It  ceases 
only  for  the  highest  grade  in  the  permanent  service, 
which  is  filled  entirely  by  promotion. 

Thus  the  graduates  of  the  School  are  not  only 
restricted  to  one-sixth  of  the  places  at  the  lowest 
step  of  the  ladder,  but  their  prospects  are  cut  down 
by  an  influx  of  outsiders  at  each  successive  grade. 
At  about  the  same  time  it  was  provided  that  the 
number  of  students  to  be  admitted  to  each  section 
of  the  Colonial  School  should  be  fixed  annually  by 
the  Minister,  in  accordance  with  the  probable  vacan- 
cies open  to  its  graduates.^  It  is  evident,  therefore, 
that  the  School,  instead  of  being,  as  was  originally 
intended,  the  main  source  of  supply  for  colonial  offi- 

^  Decree  of  March  23,  1898.  *  Decree  of  April  2,  1896,  Art.  3. 


200  FRANCE 

cials,  has  been  reduced  to  furnishing  a  comparatively 
small  part  of  them. 

The  Service  of  Indo-China 

The  case  of  the  Indo-Chinese  Section,  though  less 
striking,  tells  the  same  story.  This  section  also  was 
affected  by  the  Decree  of  1894,  limiting  the  number 
of  students  in  the  School ;  and  here  also  was  estab- 
lished the  principle  of  appointments  from  outside, 
for  the  Decree  of  July  i,  1893,  provided  that  the  first 
grade  of  regular  officials  in  Cochin-China  above  the 
probationers  should  be  recruited,  two-thirds  from  the 
probationers  (who  were  all  graduates  of  the  School) 
and  the  subordinate  officials,  and  one-third  among 
Doctors  of  Law  and  persons  in  the  Colonial  Office 
in  Paris.  The  higher  grades  were  to  be  recruited 
partly  by  promotion  and  partly  from  the  Colonial 
Office  in  Paris.  The  services  of  the  various  prov- 
inces composing  the  Indo-Chinese  colonies  were  not 
then  consolidated,  and  were  regulated  by  separate 
enactments.  But  the  same  spirit  pervaded  them  all. 
Thus  the  Decree  of  September  14,  1896,  as  modified 
by  that  of  June  13,  1897,  provided  that  three-fifths 
only,  instead  of  three-quarters,  of  the  probational 
positions  in  Annam,  Tonquin,  and  Cambodia  should 
be  reserved  for  graduates  of  the  School,^  while  an- 
other fifth  was  to  be  filled  by  promotion  from  the 
subordinate  service,  and  the   remaining  fifth  by  a 

^  Under  the  Decree  of  November  10,  1892,  at  least  six  places  were 
reserved  annually  for  the  graduates  of  the  School. 


THE  COLONIAL  SCHOOL  20I 

competitive  examination  among  candidates  holding 
certain  diplomas  of  high  rank.^  Elaborate  arrange- 
ments were  also  made  for  promotion  through  the 
various  grades  of  the  service. 

But  it  is  unnecessary  to  try  to  follow  the  intricate 
maze  of  provisions  for  these  services.  It  will  suffice 
to  glance  at  a  decree  issued  last  autumn  consolidat- 
ing into  one  body  the  services  of  all  the  provinces  of 
Indo-China,  and  revising  the  rules  of  appointment  in 
a  reactionary  sense.  This  decree,  which  bears  the 
date  of  September  i6,  1899,  after  dealing  with  some 
subordinate  positions,  declares  that  graduates  of  the 
School  shall  be  appointed  to  the  post  of  probationary 
administrator  so  far  as  there  are  vacancies;  and 
then  provides  that  appointments  to  the  lowest  grade 
in  the  regular  service  shall  be  made  partly  from  these 
probationers,  partly  by  the  promotion  of  subordinate 
officials,  partly  from  officials  in  the  Colonial  Office  in 
Paris,  partly  from  military  and  naval  officers,  and 
partly  from  members  of  the  Prefectoral  Councils  in 
France.  .  The  same  rule  with  slight  modifications  is 
appHed  to  the  next  two  grades  in  the  service,  but  the 
two  highest  grades  can  be  filled  only  by  promotion, 
and  the  third  only  by  promotion  and  from  military 
men. 

The  proportion  of  places  to  be  given  to  each  of  the 
categories  is  not  specified,  so  that  the  number  of 
graduates  of  the  School  admitted  to  the  service  would 

*  The  diploma  of  the  Colonial  School  was  included.  See  Erratum 
published  in  the  Journal  Officiel  of  June  20,  1897,  p.  3426. 


202  FRANCE 

appear  to  be  discretionary.  But  an  even  more  im- 
portant indication  of  the  spirit  of  the  law  is  found  in 
the  inclusion  of  the  last  category  in  the  list.  This  is 
a  return  to  the  unfortunate  system  of  transferring 
men  from  the  home  to  the  colonial  service,  a  system 
which  has  been  held  accountable  for  much  of  the 
French  lack  of  success  in  colonization  in  the  past, 
and  which  was  discarded  many  years  ago.  The  re- 
lapse into  the  old  ways  is  emphasized  by  a  general 
provision  at  the  end  of  the  decree  to  the  effect  that 
transfers  between  the  civil  services  of  France  and 
Indo-China  can  be  authorized  by  the  Government. 

Change  in  the  Object  of  the  School 

It  is  clear  that  the  Colonial  School,  instead  of  ex- 
panding as  was  originally  intended,  until  it  became 
the  chief  means  of  training  colonial  officials,  has 
been  curtailed  and  crowded  out  until  it  has  become 
only  one  of  the  many  sources,  and  one  of  rather 
secondary  importance  at  that.  The  fact  is  that  the 
French  system  of  recruiting  the  colonial  service  is 
not  framed  on  any  consistent  plan.  It  has  been 
modified  from  time  to  time,  not  so  much  to  accord 
with  the  results  of  experience,  as  in  consequence  of 
pressure,  and  its  present  form  is  the  effect  of  trying 
to  please  everybody. 

OTHER  METHODS  OF  ENTERING  THE  SERVICE 

At  the  same  time  it  is  only  fair  to  add  that  some 
officials  of  experience  are  of  opinion  that  there  are 


OTHER  MODES  OF   SELECTION  203 

great  advantages  in  having  several  different  methods 
of  admission  to  the  colonial  service,  because  one  of 
them  supplies  elements  which  the  rest  would  exclude. 
It  is  worth  while,  therefore,  to  consider  how  the  other 
modes  of  selection  are  put  into  operation ;  and  for  this 
purpose  we  may  leave  out  of  account  the  new  decree 
regulating  the  service  in  Indo-China,  which  is  too  recent 
to  have  produced  any  effect,  and  confine  our  attention 
to  the  African  service.  This  is  recruited  by  three  dis- 
tinct methods,  apart  from  the  School.  They  are  open 
competition,  appointment  of  officers  from  the  Army 
and  Navy,  and  promotion  of  subordinate  officials. 

Open   Competition 

This  method  of  selection  was  introduced  by  the 
Decree  of  July  4,  1896,  and  consists  of  a  competitive 
examination  confined  to  the  graduates  of  the  great 
French  educational  institutions  of  high  grade,  among 
which  the  Colonial  School  and  the  Ecole  Libre  des 
Sciences  Politiques  are  included.  The  examination, 
regulated  in  detail  by  the  Arrets  of  October  17, 
1896,1  —  is  divided  into  two  parts.  The  first  part, 
which  is  all  in  writing,  comprises:  (i)  the  history  or 
the  physical   and  economic   geography  of  Africa;^ 

1  The  subject  of  colonial  products  was  added  to  the  examination 
after  that  date.  Another  ArrSte  of  the  same  date  prescribed  simi- 
lar conditions  for  the  competitive  examination  for  the  service  in 
Annam,  Tonquin,  and  Cambodia;  but  that  competition  has  been 
abandoned  altogether  by  the  Decree  of  September  16,  1899. 

'  In  this  subject  and  that  of  colonial  products,  there  is  published, 
with  the  notice  of  the  examination,  a  programme  showing  the  extent 
of  the  knowledge  required. 


204  FRANCE 

(2)  a  report  on  some  question  relating  to  administra- 
tion, finance,  or  customs ;  (3)  colonial  products  ;  and  (4) 
English  or  German.  A  candidate  must  obtain  a 
mark  of  40  per  cent  in  each  of  these  subjects,  and 
a  total  average  of  54  per  cent,  in  order  to  be 
admitted  to  the  second  part  of  the  examination.  This 
takes  place  a  week  later,  and  comprises:  (i)  a  writ- 
ten summary  of  the  results  of  a  mission  to  Africa,  a 
copy  of  the  report  being  given  to  the  candidates  for  the 
purpose ;  (2)  a  practical  test  in  surveying ;  and  (3)  an 
oral  examination  on  the  same  language  that  was  offered 
at  the  first  part  of  the  examination.  But  a  candidate 
can  offer  the  other  language,  also  or  Arabic  or  Mala- 
gassy,  and  thereby  get  additional  marks.  The  candi- 
dates who  have  obtained  40  per  cent  in  each  subject 
in  both  parts  of  the  examination,  and  an  average  of 
about  50  per  cent  on  the  whole,  are  then  ranked 
according  to  their  marks ;  and  so  many  of  the  highest 
on  the  list  are  appointed  as  there  were  vacancies 
previously  advertised. 

This  examination  does  not  appear  on  its  face  to  be 
very  difficult,  but  the  questions  asked  are  said  to 
require  a  really  profound  knowledge  of  the  subject. 
The  system  has  not,  however,  proved  a  success,  be- 
cause the  number  of  competitors  is  very  small,  and 
this  may  be  ascribed  to  various  causes.  In  the  first 
place,  the  examination  involves  special  preparation,  a 
disadvantage  which  has  been  sufficiently  discussed 
already  in  these  pages ;  and  in  the  second  place,  the 
number  of  places  offered  for  competition  is  too  small 


OTHER  MODES   OF   SELECTION  205 

to  attract  any  considerable  quantity  of  candidates. 
The  number  to  be  competed  for  in  January,  iqcxd,  for 
example,  is  only  three,  and  the  number  of  candidates 
appears  not  to  be  more  than  four,^  although  as  a  rule 
every  competition  for  public  office  in  France  is 
crowded.  The  small  number  of  applicants  is  gener- 
ally felt  to  interfere  seriously  with  the  success  of  the 
plan,  and  it  is,  indeed,  hard  to  see  how  any  competi- 
tive examination,  which  is  after  all  only  a  means  of 
elimination,  can  produce  good  results  unless  there  is 
a  fair  number  of  candidates  to  choose  from.  If  the 
examination  could  be  so  devised  as  to  require  no 
special  preparation,  as  in  England,  or  if  a  larger 
number  of  places  were  thrown  open  to  competition, 
the  quantity  of  candidates  would,  no  doubt,  increase 
heavily,  but  under  the  present  arrangements  that  can 
hardly  be  expected. 

Appointments  from  the  Army  and  Navy 

The  selection  of  military  officers  for  colonial  posi- 
tions is  made  by  a  commission  composed  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Colonial  Office,  of  the  Chief  of  the 
Bureau  of  the  Personnel,  and  of  the  three  Directors 
of  the  Bureaux  that  have  charge  of  the  different 
colonies.  The  officers  must  have  a  good  report,  and 
have  seen  service  in  the  colony.  They  are  obliged 
to  resign  their  commissions  absolutely  at  the  date  of 
their  appointment,  but  as  they  do  not  enter  the  em- 
ploy of  the  colony  at  the  lowest  grade  of  the  official 

*  Journal  Officiel,  November  18,  1899. 


206  FRANCE 

ladder,  their  previous  military  service  is  counted 
toward  the  time  required  for  earning  a  colonial 
pension.  In  their  case  the  danger  of  political  press- 
ure on  the  Ministers  to  procure  appointments  is 
peculiarly  great,  and  it  is  for  that  reason  that  the 
commission  was  established  to  select  them.  It  seems 
to  be  agreed  on  all  sides,  however,  that  they  have 
furnished  excellent  material,  and  that  among  them 
are  to  be  found  many  of  the  best  administrators  in 
the  colonies.  Yet  the  opinion  seems  to  be  equally 
general  that  they  tend  too  much  to  be  disciplinarians, 
and  rely  too  much  on  the  use  of  force,  to  form  the 
sole  element  in  the  .colonial  service. 

Promotion  from  the  Subordinate  Service 

The  subordinate  service,  from  which  promotions 
are  made,  contains  few  natives,  and  is  composed 
almost  entirely  of  Frenchmen.^  Unlike  the  regular 
civil  service,  which  forms  a  single  corps  for  all  the 
African  colonies,  it  constitutes  a  distinct  and  sepa- 
rate service  for  each  colony,  and   its   members  are 

1  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  enter  here  upon  the  subject  of  the  native 
subordinate  services.  As  in  other  Asiatic  colonies,  there  are  native 
officials  in  Indo-China.  In  Cochin-China,  which  is  under  direct 
French  rule,  the  local  native  chiefs  are  selected  by  the  villagers, 
although  the  choice  is  practically  directed  by  the  French  authorities. 
Annam,  on  the  other  hand,  which  is  a  true  protectorate,  has  the 
Chinese  system  of  government  by  Mandarins  selected  by  competitive 
literary  examinations,  which  offers  a  sufficient  parody  of  the  English 
methods  to  be  the  classical  example  of  the  meeting  of  the  extremes 
of  stagnant  and  progressive  civilization. 


OTHER   MODES   OF   SELECTION  20/ 

recruited  and  dismissed  at  the  discretion  of  the  Gov- 
ernor. Some  of  them  are  taken  from  Frenchmen 
engaged  in  business  in  the  colony.  Others  are 
brought  directly  from  France,  and  these  are  com- 
monly young  men  who  are  known  to  the  Governor, 
his  relatives,  or  the  relatives  of  his  friends.  They  are 
promoted  to  the  regular  Civil  Service  by  the  Minister  on 
the  recommendation  of  the  Governor,  which  is  almost 
always  followed;  but  before  this  can  be  done  they 
must  have  served  in  the  colony  two  years,  and  it  is 
the  practice  of  the  Colonial  Office,  when  a  promo- 
tion of  this  sort  is  made,  to  keep  the  official  in  the 
colony  of  the  Governor  who  is  responsible  for  his 
selection. 

This  method  of  recruiting  the  officials  is  not 
unnaturally,  on  the  whole,  the  one  that  the  colonial 
Governors  like  the  best,  because  they  prefer  the 
appointment  of  men  they  have  known  and  can  select 
themselves.  The  men  selected  appear  to  have  been 
satisfactory,  although  as  yet  the  system  has  not  been 
working  long  enough  to  show  what  capabilities  these 
men  will  show  in  places  of  considerable  responsibility. 
But  while  promotion  from  a  subordinate  service,  like 
promotion  from  the  ranks  in  the  Army,  has  great 
advantages,  it  may  be  suggested  that  it  ought  to  be 
reserved  for  cases  of  exceptional  merit,  and  that 
the  proportion  of  places  filled  in  this  way  in  the 
African  service,  fixed  as  it  is  by  law  at  one-half,  is 
excessive. 


208  FRANCE 

THE   JUDICIAL   SERVICE 

The  judicial  is  quite  separate  from  the  administra- 
tive service  in  the  French  colonies,  but  the  positions 
in  it  are  few,  and  there  is  no  systematic  mode  of 
recruiting  its  members.  Judicial  posts  were  among 
the  careers  at  first  enumerated  as  reserved  for  gradu- 
ates of  the  Colonial  School.^  But  this  was  one  of  the 
matters  criticised  by  M.  Boutmy,^  and,  whether  for 
that  reason  or  not,  the  provision  was  subsequently 
dropped.  The  Colonial  Office  is,  therefore,  free  to 
make  the  selections  as  it  pleases.  It  was  formerly  in 
the  habit,  when  a  vacancy  occurred,  of  applying  to 
the  Ministry  of  Justice  for  a  candidate,  but  that  de- 
partment not  unnaturally  furnished  a  magistrate  who 
was  not  wanted  at  home,  and  hence  the  Colonial  Office 
decided  to  select  its  own  candidates,  outside  of  the 
magistracy  in  France.  In  so  doing  it  often  takes  a 
graduate  of  the  Colonial  School,  who  has  also  taken 
his  degree  of  Licentiate  in  Law,  but  this  does  not 
happen  with  sufficient  frequency  to  make  the  colonial 
bench  a  regular  career  for  the  members  of  the 
School. 

FRENCH   EXPERIENCE    OF    LITTLE   VALUE 

As  in  other  political  fields,  so  in  the  selection  and 
training  of  her  colonial  officials,  France  has  been  a 
laboratory  for  political  experiments.      But  none  of 

*  Decree  of  November  23,  1889,  Arts.  16-19. 

*  "  Recrutement,"  p.  32. 


THE  JUDICIAL   SERVICE  209 

them  have  yet  lasted  long  enough,  or  been  pursued 
with  enough  constancy,  to  furnish  any  definite  conclu- 
sions. The  calibre  of  the  colonial  officials  has  im- 
proved notably,  but  it  is  hard  to  ascribe  this  to  any 
particular  feature  of  the  system.  What  the  School 
might  have  accomplished  if  it  had  been  suffered  to 
supply  the  bulk  of  the  service,  it  is  impossible  to  say. 
And  the  same  thing  is  true  of  each  of  the  other 
methods  of  recruiting.  The  French  experiments, 
therefore,  while  interesting  to  the  student,  are  of 
little  value  to  other  colonial  powers. 


APPENDIX 

Courses  of  Study  in  the   Four  Administrative 
Sections  of  the  Colonial  School 

The  Decree  of  July  21,  1898,  "Art.  7,"  provides  as 
follows :  — 

The  students  must,  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  of  study, 
undergo  an  examination  upon  the  subjects  taught  at  the 
Faculty  of  law  in  the  second  year  for  the  baccalaureate, 
with  the  exception  of  Roman  law.  If  they  fail  at  this 
examination,  they  can  present  themselves  again  in  the 
month  of  November.  In  case  of  a  second  failure,  they  are 
not  allowed  to  enter  upon  the  second  year.  Students  who 
present  the  diploma  of  bachelor  of  law  are  excused  from 
this  examination. 

At  the  end  of  the  second  year  of  study,  an  examination 
is  held  under  the  same  conditions,  upon  the  subjects  re- 
quired for  the  licentiate  in  law.  Students  who  fail  in  the 
supplementary  examination  in  the  month  of  November 
cannot  obtain  a  degree  from  the  Colonial  School. 

The  courses  in  law  referred  to  above  are  not  given  in  the 
Colonial  School.  Those  given  in  the  School  itself  are 
described  by  the  Arrets  of  July  25,  1898  (amending  the 
Arrets  of  March  24,  1897),  as  follows:  — 

Article  i.  The  general  studies  taught  at  the  Colonial 
School  are  divided  between  the  two  years  of  study  in  the 
following  manner :  — 

310 


STUDIES   AT   THE   COLONIAL   SCHOOL       211 


First  Year 

Comparative  study  of  the  systems  of  colo- 
nization (Africa,  Oceanica,  French 
Colonies  in  America);  economic  sys- 
tem of  the  French  Colonies  (Tariffs, 
Banks,  Mortgages,  Money,  Control  of 
sugar) 55  lessons 

Colonial  hygiene,  and  principles  of  prac- 
tical medicine   .         .         .         .         .  12      " 

Colonial  products 30      '* 

Second  Year 
Comparative  study  of  the  systems  of  colo- 
nization (Indo-China,  British  Indies, 
Dutch  Indies,  Philippines)  .         .  45  lessons 

General  organization  of  Colonies       .         .  30      " 

Colonial  administrative  law        .         .         .  10      " 

Course  in  administrative  accounting  .         .  10      " 

The  students  receive  each  week  a  lesson  in  living  lan- 
guages. Only  one  foreign  language  (English,  German,  or 
Spanish,  at  the  option  of  the  student)  is  required. 

The  students  are  given  practice  in  writing  administrative 
documents.  A  certain  number  of  conferences  are  held 
with  them  for  this  purpose. 

The  optional  knowledge  of  another  living  language, 
besides  the  one  required,  gives  the  student  the  advantage 
of  additional  marks  at  his  graduation  from  the  School. 
The  languages  which  can  give  this  advantage  are  English, 
German,  Spanish,  Italian,  and  Dutch. 

The  summary  or  translation  which  the  students  must 
present  each  year  is  given  out  to  them  in  December.  A 
period  of  five  months  is  allowed  them  to  do  the  work.^ 

1  By  the  Decree  of  July  21,  1898, "  Art.  7,"  "  the  students  are  required 
each  year  to  present  a  summary  or  translation  of  a  work  on  colonies, 
published  in  a  foreign  language  and  not  yet  translated  into  French." 


212  APPENDIX 

Conferences  are  given  at  the  School  by  explorers,  colo- 
nial officials,  etc. ;  after  each  conference  the  students  are 
called  upon  to  write  abstracts  which  are  examined  by  the 
Council  of  Administration,  and  are  the  subject  of  a  mark 
given  by  the  Council  at  graduation  from  the  School.^ 

Article  3.  The  special  courses  for  each  section  are 
divided  in  the  following  manner :  — 

Section  of  the  Commissariat^ 

Course  of  theoretical  and  practical  preparation  for  the 
colonial  commissariat.     Both  years. 

Indo-Chinese  Section* 

Geography  in  detail,  history  and  institutions  of  Indo- 
China.     Both  years. 

Legislation  and  administration  of  Indo-China.  Both 
years. 

Annamite  language.     Both  years. 

Reading  and  explanation  of  ordinary  pieces  of  Chinese 
and  Annamite.     Second  year. 

Voluntary  Course,  giving  a  chance  for  a  credit  of  addi- 
tional marks,  Cambodian  language.  (Course  given  every 
other  year.) 

^  Physical  training  is  also  required,  and  the  mark,  of  which  the 
maximum  is  40,  is  credited  to  the  student  like  his  mark  in  any  other 
required  subject.  Military  drill  is  only  compulsory  for  those  who  are 
liable  to  military  service,  and  it  appears  to  give  them  no  credit  in 
marks.  For  the  others  it  is  optional  and  gives  a  credit  in  marks. 
ArrStes,  March  24,  1897,  Art.  2;  July  25,  1898,  "Arts."  6,  7. 

*  The  maximum  marks  for  the  special  courses  in  this  section  are  360, 
against  a  maximum  of  700  for  the  required  general  work. 

'  The  maximum  marks  for  the  special  courses  in  this  section  are 
900,  against  the  700  for  the  required  general  work. 


STUDIES  AT  THE  COLONIAL   SCHOOL         21 3 

African  Section^ 

Detailed  geography  of  Africa  (including  Madagascar). 
First  year. 

Organization,  legislation,  and  administration  of  our 
African  possessions  (including  Madagascar). 

Algeria.     First  year. 

Tunis.     First  year. 

West  Coast  of  Africa.     First  year. 

Madagascar.     First  year. 

Mussulman  Law, —  comparison  with  Hindu  Law.  Second 
year. 

Arabic  language.     Both  years. 

Malagassy  language.     Second  year. 

Penitentiary  Section  ' 

Penal  legislation.     First  year. 

Penal  systems  in  use  in  France  and  foreign  countries. 
Second  year. 

The  Arrets  then  proceeds  to  give  elaborate  tables  for 
computing  the  marks  in  the  different  required  subjects, 
and,  finally,  directions  for  computing  those  in  the  voluntary 
ones.' 

1  The  maximum  marks  for  the  special  courses  in  this  section  are 
960,  of  which  Arabic  counts  for  360,  against  the  700  for  the  required 
work. 

^  The  maximum  mark  for  the  special  courses  in  this  section  are 
480,  against  the  700  for  the  required  general  work. 

'  A  voluntary  European  language  gives  a  maximum  of  20  marks, 
a  native  colonial  one  a  maximvun  of  60  marks. 


CHAPTER   IV 

THE   UNITED    STATES 
THE    PRINCIPLES    TO    BE    APPLIED 

We  are  already  familiar,  in  the  United  States, 
with  competitive  examination  as  a  means  of  recruit- 
ing the  civil  servants,  but  this  system  has  quite  a 
different  character  from  that  which  would  be  required 
for  the  selection  of  colonial  officials.  The  competi- 
tive examinations  that  are  now  employed  here  are 
intended  to  test  the  fitness  of  men  for  immediate 
service,  and  in  using  them  we  assume  that  there  are 
in  the  community  persons  whose  ordinary  occupa- 
tions are  such  as  to  enable  them  to  perform  the  gov- 
ernment work.  Now  this  cannot  be  the  case  in  the 
colonial  service.  The  community  is  full  of  compe- 
tent men  doing  every  kind  of  work  that  is  needed  in 
the  public  service  of  the  nation ;  and  even  where,  as 
in  the  case  of  postmen,  there  is  no  occupation  in  the 
community  at  large  that  is  exactly  the  same,  the 
business  of  the  Government  can  be  learned  so  rapidly 
that  this  is  not  of  much  consequence.  But  there  are 
no  men  in  the  United  States  whose  ordinary  vocation  is 
ruling  Asiatics,  or  whose  normal  occupation  involves 

214 


PRINCIPLES   TO   BE   APPLIED  21 5 

the  art  of  administering  dependencies.  For  this 
work  men  must  be  especially  trained,  either  before 
or  after  selection ;  and  unless  we  are  to  adopt  the 
unfortunate  Dutch  system  of  having  an  examination 
which  requires  an  elaborate  special  training  before- 
hand, the  object  of  any  competitive  examination 
must  be  simply  to  select  the  most  promising  men  to 
be  subsequently  trained  for  the  service.  It  is  clear, 
therefore,  that  none  of  the  existing  methods  of  com- 
petitive examination  in  this  country  can  furnish  us 
with  examples,  and  that  we  have  before  us  in  the 
recruiting  of  the  colonial  officials  an  entirely  new 
problem,  in  which  we  must  seek  for  light  in  other 
directions. 

It  is  unsafe  to  copy  the  political  forms  of  a  foreign 
country,  and  an  attempt  to  do  so  is  apt  to  lead  to 
disappointment;  but  it  is  always  wise  to  learn  their 
principles,  and  so  far  as  they  are  good,  to  apply  them, 
under  forms  adapted  to  one's  own  conditions.  Now 
the  experiments  of  England  and  Holland,  the  only 
two  countries  which  have  had  a  systematic  method 
of  recruiting  their  colonial  officials  for  a  sufficiently 
great  length  of  time  to  be  of  value,  seem  on  the 
whole  to  establish  the  same  principles.  These  are 
in  the  main  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  report 
of  Macaulay's  Commission,  which  were  in  turn  based 
upon  the  earlier  and  long  experience  of  the  East 
India  Company.  They  are:  first,  that  the  men  se- 
lected for  the  service  should  have  a  high  general 
education,  in  fact  as  high  a  general  education  as  it 


2l6  THE  UNITED   STATES 

is  possible  to  give ;  second,  that  the  selection  should 
not  be  based  in  any  way  upon  the  special  preparation 
of  the  candidates  for  the  colonial  work,  but  should 
be  made  before  that  special  preparation  takes  place ; 
and  third,  that  a  great  deal  of  special  preparation  is 
not  needed  before  the  selected  candidates  are  sent  to 
the  East  to  begin  their  active  apprenticeship  upon 
the  spot. 

THE    ENGLISH    SYSTEM    CANNOT    BE    ADOPTED    HERE 

These  principles  are  applied  in  England  by  means 
of  a  competitive  examination  based  upon  the  subjects 
of  University  education,  but  it  is  not  very  difficult  to 
see  objections  to  this  practice  here,  arising  both  from 
the  habits  of  thought  of  our  people,  and  from  the 
practical  difficulty  of  setting  up  a  standard. 

Because  Contrary  to  our  Habits  of  Thought 

In  England  there  is  a  strong  feeling  against  mak- 
ing appointments  to  public  office  on  grounds  of  per- 
sonal favoritism,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  no 
serious  opposition  to  basing  appointments  on  a  stand- 
ard of  scholarship  which  practically  confines  them  to 
a  small  educated  class.  In  America  the  popular  feel- 
ing is  very  nearly  the  reverse  on  both  these  points. 
An  attempt  to  reserve  any  class  of  offices,  whether 
colonial  or  domestic,  for  college  graduates  would 
provoke  widespread  jealousy.  It  would  be  looked 
upon  as  class  legislation  for  the  benefit  of  a  privi- 


ENGLISH   SYSTEM  INAPPLICABLE  21/ 

leged  few ;  ^  for  the  public  could  hardly  be  made  to 
appreciate  the  necessity,  or  even  the  value,  of  a  high 
general  education  for  the  colonial  service.  They 
would  point  to  illustrious  examples  of  men  who  had 
succeeded  without  it  —  to  Clive  and  to  others.  .  They 
would  argue  that  it  is  certainly  no  more  difficult  to 
manage  the  Philippines  in  time  of  peace  than  it  was 
to  direct  the  United  States  during  the  Civil  War,  and 
they  would  point  out  the  folly  of  any  system  that 
would  have  excluded  Abraham  Lincoln  from  the 
Presidency  on  account  of  his  lack  of  a  college  educa- 
tion. They  would  name  successful  men  in  every 
career  in  life,  public  and  private,  and  show  that  col- 
lege men  do  not  possess  a  monopoly  of  the  capacity 
for  public  affairs.  It  would  be  impossible  to  demon- 
strate to  the  people  at  large  the  fallacy  of  such  rea- 
soning; to  convince  them  that  if  their  arguments 
prove  anything  they  prove  that  general  education  is 
useless ;  and  to  make  them  see  that  the  proportion  of 
successes  in  positions  of  responsibility  are  greater 
among  educated  than  among  uneducated  men.  Any 
test  is,  in  fact,  a  very  rough  measure  of  capacity,  and 
cannot  have  the  effect  of  selecting  precisely  the  per- 

1  The  Boston  Herald,  discussing  this  subject  on  December  29,  1899, 
remarked :  "  If  it  was  proposed  to  establish  a  colonial  civil  service 
system  which  ruled  out  almost  every  one  who  was  not  capable  of 
passing  an  examination  for  university  honors,  a  protest  would  go  up, 
particularly  from  the  demagogic  politicians,  that  this  was  a  species 
of  class  control,  and  that  in  a  free  democratic  government  every  citi- 
zen should  be  given  a  chance  to  receive  an  official  appointment. 
This  is  one  of  our  weaknesses."  These  remarks  may  be  taken  as 
expressing  a  very  widespread  sentiment. 


2l8  THE   UNITED   STATES 

sons  in  the  community  who  are  best  fitted  for  the 
work  to  be  done.  Its  object  is  merely  to  get  as  good 
an  average,  with  as  few  failures,  as  possible,  and  the 
selection  of  colonial  officials  exclusively  from  men  of 
high  education  conduces  to  that  result.  But  it  would 
be  hard  to  make  the  public  feel  that  this  is  either 
true  or  just. 

After  saying  that  the  Americans  would  have  a 
strong  jealousy  of  any  limitation  of  the  colonial  ser- 
vice to  college  graduates,  it  may  seem  strange  to  say 
that  they  would  have  little  jealousy  of  a  system  of 
favoritism,  which  virtually  confines  appointments  to 
the  men  who  have  influence  with  politicians;  but  such  is 
unfortunately  the  case.  The  fact  is,  that  the  Ameri- 
can, while  believing  passionately  in  equality  in  certain 
ways,  does  not  care  for  it  in  others.  He  has  a 
strong  tendency  to  think  that  while  all  men  ought  to 
have  an  equal  chance  in  life,  they  have  a  right  to 
enjoy  for  themselves  that  chance,  and  that  one 
of  the  things  that  a  man  may  acquire  by  his  exer- 
tions, and  the  fruits  of  which  he  has  a  right  to  enjoy, 
is  his  position  in  the  community  and  his  influence 
over  others.  We  see  this  continually  throughout  the 
business  world.  The  directors  of  railroads,  for  exam- 
ple, have  privileges  which  shock  an  Englishman. 
The  fact  is,  that  the  American  is  really  far  more 
of  an  individualist  than  his  kinsman  across  the  sea. 
Moreover,  the  right  to  enjoy  the  influence  one  pos- 
sesses applies  to  politics  as  well  as  to  business,  for  deep 
down  in  American  sentiment  one  is  constantly  com- 


ENGLISH  SYSTEM   INAPPLICABLE  219 

ing  across  manifestations  of  the  feeling  that  a  public 
office  is  not  solely  a  public  trust,  but  also  to  some 
extent  a  private  privilege  as  well.  One  may  see  this 
at  every  turn.  To  take  a  single  example,  the  laws 
requiring  the  Federal  offices  in  Washington  to  be 
divided  among  the  States  in  proportion  to  population 
has  no  other  foundation.  Such  a  rule  is  absurd  if 
public  office  is  purely  a  public  trust ;  because  Provi- 
dence does  not  distribute  men  of  capacity  for  the 
public  service  in  exact  proportion  to  population,  and 
the  system  involves  a  refusal  to  appoint  the  most 
competent  man  for  a  place,  simply  on  the  ground  that 
the  quota  of  his  State  is  already  full.  But  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  assume  that  the  holding  of  public 
office  is  a  private  privilege,  the  distribution  of  offices 
among  the  States  in  proportion  to  population  is  not 
only  entirely  fair,  but  is  the  only  just  distribution  that 
can  be  made.  Whether  we  approve  of  these  popular 
sentiments  or  not,  we  must  recognize  them,  and  it  is 
unwise  to  plan  a  colonial  service  without  taking  them 
into  account.  Now,  whatever  system  for  recruiting 
that  service  is  adopted,  it  must  not  only  be  permanent, 
but  it  must  be  believed  to  be  perfectly  secure,  or  the 
best  men,  those  who  have  reason  to  hope  for  a  suc- 
cessful career  at  home,  will  not  go  into  it.  In  other 
words,  it  is  not  enough  to  enact  a  good  method  of 
recruiting  colonial  officials,  but  that  method  must  be 
such  as  to  be  safe  against  serious  attacks,  and  what 
is  more  important  still,  against  the  more  insidious  pro- 
cess of  undermining.    But  unless  the  system  be  based 


220  THE   UNITED   STATES 

upon  a  widespread  belief  in  its  utility,  it  will  not  be 
secure.  A  system  of  competitive  examination  would 
be  much  more  open  to  assault  in  the  colonial  than  in 
the  home  civil  service,  both  because  the  violations  of 
the  law  cannot  awake  so  much  public  attention,  and 
because  an  examination  which  merely  tested  the  gen- 
eral qualifications  of  the  candidate  would  have  far 
less  popular  support  than  our  home  examination 
which  tests  his  fitness  for  immediate  service. 

It  would  probably  be  impossible,  therefore,  to  es- 
tablish a  systen  of  competitive  examination  similar 
to  that  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  or  to  shield  it 
effectually  from  attack  if  established. 

Because  a  Standard  cannot  he  Maintained 

There  is  another  difficulty  in  adopting  the  English 
system  of  competitive  examination,  arising  from  the 
absence  of  a  recognized  University  standard.  There 
are,  here,  no  Universities  which,  like  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  in  the  United  Kingdom,  occupy  the  posi- 
tion of  models  to  whose  standard  other  institutions 
must  conform  on  pain  of  forfeiting  their  claim  to  be 
considered  of  the  first  rank.  If  the  competitive  ex- 
amination were  to  be  based  upon  the  requirements 
for  a  University  degree  the  question  would  instantly 
arise,  a  degree  at  what  University }  All  the  smaller 
colleges,  and  particularly  all  the  State  Universities, 
would  insist  on  being  considered,  and  they  would 
complain  if  the  standard  were  adapted  to  the  curric- 
ulum of  the  half  a  dozen  largest  colleges  in  the  coun- 


ENGLISH   SYSTEM   INAPPLICABLE  221 

try.  They  would  say,  and  say  rightly  too,  that  this 
would  be  giving  a  privilege  to  the  graduates  of  those 
institutions.  But  if,  on  the  other  hand,  the  smaller 
colleges  with  a  lower  standard  were  to  be  considered,  it 
would  become  impossible  to  draw  the  line,  for  there 
is  no  standard  in  this  country  of  what  constitutes  a 
University  or  a  college,  and  the  institutions  using 
those  names  run  by  insensible  gradations  down  to 
academies  with  about  the  level  of  a  good  high  school. 
The  place  where  the  line  would  naturally  be  drawn 
would  be  such  as  to  include  at  least  one  University  in 
every  State,  but  in  that  case  the  standard  and  the 
age  of  competition  would  be  entirely  different  from 
that  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  In  other  words,  the 
examination  would  not  be  a  test  of  really  high  gen- 
eral education.  But  wherever  the  line  were  drawn 
there  would  be  a  constant  pressure  to  lower  it,  so  as 
to  enable  other  institutions  to  compete.  In  short,  it 
would  be  impossible  to  fix  a  standard  that  would  be 
either  high  or  permanent.  Moreover,  unless  the 
standard  were  closely  fitted  to  the  curricula  of  a  very 
small  number  of  the  best  Universities,  it  would  soon  be 
found  that  the  candidates  could  be  far  more  success- 
fully prepared  by  a  crammer  than  by  any  institution, 
and  hence  we  should  get  all  the  evils  of  the  cramming 
system,  and  this  ought  by  all  means  to  be  avoided. 

POSSIBILITY   OF    A    SPECIAL    COLLEGE 

I  have  said  that  the  country  is  full  of  men  doing 
every  kind  of  work  that  is  needed  in  the  public  ser- 


222  THE   UNITED   STATES 

vice  of  the  nation.  But  that  is  not  strictly  true ;  for 
the  officers  of  the  Army  and  the  Navy  are  not  to  be 
found  already  prepared  in  civil  Ufe.  They  must  be 
specially  trained  for  their  duties,  and  the  method 
by  which  it  is  done  in  their  case  might,  perhaps,  be 
adopted  for  the  colonial  service.  In  short,  it  is  by 
no  means  impossible  that  the  principles  which  ought 
to  regulate  the  selection  and  training  of  colonial  offi- 
cials can  be  applied  in  this  country  by  means  of  a 
special  training  school  or  college. 

It  will  of  course  be  objected  that  the  system  has 
been  abandoned,  or  has  not  succeeded,  in  other  coun- 
tries, but  the  objection  is  more  specious  than  sound. 
The  college  at  Haileybury  was  not  given  up  because 
it  was  incapable  of  doing  good  work,  or  even  because 
it  had  not  done  good  work  in  the  past,  but  because  it 
was  intimately  associated  with  a  system  which  had 
been  outlived,  and  with  the  abuses  to  which  that  sys- 
tem had  given  rise.  Haileybury  cannot  by  any  means 
be  said  to  have  been  a  failure,  and  it  was  a  common 
subject  of  discussion  some  years  ago  among  English- 
men connected  with  the  Indian  administration  whether 
the  Haileybury  men  or  the  Competition  Wallahs  had 
furnished  the  best  materials  for  the  service. 

The  fact  that  the  Dutch  School  has  aroused  a 
great  deal  of  hostile  criticism  has  no  bearing  upon 
this  question,  because  that  is  an  institution  of  quite  a 
different  kind,  and  any  defects  it  may  have  shown 
are  due  to  its  being  based  upon  wrong  principles, 
and  have  no  tendency  to  prove  that  a  school  man- 


POSSIBILITY   OF   A   COLLEGE  223 

age^  upon  different  principles  would  not  be  com- 
pletely successful. 

The  French  School  cannot  be  said  to  have  proved 
unsuccessful,  for,  as  has  been  pointed  out  already,  it 
is  still  too  soon  to  estimate  the  measure  of  its  useful- 
ness. It  has  no  doubt  been  unable  to  maintain  its 
position  as  the  main  source  of  supply  for  colonial 
officials,  but  that  is  no  reason  for  supposing  that  a 
similar  school  could  not  maintain  its  position  here, 
because  the  French  and  American  conditions  are 
by  no  means  alike.  Annapolis  has  kept  its  hold  very 
well  on  the  supply  of  Naval  officers ;  and  West  Point 
has  done  the  same  for  the  Army,  except  for  the  case 
of  the  inevitable  expansion  of  the  service  in  time  of 
war. 

The  history  of  other  countries  ought  not,  therefore, 
to  discourage  the  idea  of  a  special  college,  while  our 
own  experience  in  another  field  is  decidedly  favorable 
to  it ;  for  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say  that  of  all  the 
methods  we  have  ever  tried  for  recruiting  a  public 
service,  the  military  and  naval  academies  have  been 
distinctly  the  most  successful. 

Advantages  of  Such  a  College 

A  college  could  easily  satisfy  the  three  principles 
already  laid  down.  The  selection  would  be  made  as 
in  the  case  of  West  Point  and  Annapolis,  and  hence 
would,  of  course,  be  made  before  any  special  training 
was  begun.  In  fact,  the  amount  of  special  training 
given  before  the  departure  for  the  Philippines  could 


224  THE   UNITED   STATES 

be  regulated  in  any  way  that  experience  proved  Ifest. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  young  men  selected  could  be 
given  as  high  a  general  education  as  they  could  get 
anywhere  else  in  the  country.  West  Point  and 
Annapolis  give  much  more  than  a  technical  training 
in  the  art  of  war,  for  their  courses  include  many 
studies  whose  real  object  is  the  development  and  dis- 
cipline of  the  mind.  In  fact,  appointments  to  those 
institutions  are  sought  every  year  by  young  men  who 
have  no  desire  to  enter  the  military  service,  and  who 
want  the  nomination  solely  for  the  sake  of  the  educa- 
tion it  affords.  A  government  college  of  this  sort  is, 
indeed,  a  great  deal  better  position  than  any  other 
technical  school,  because  in  the  latter  the  students  are 
apt  to  neglect  those  courses  which  do  not  seem  to  them 
to  have  a  direct  bearing  on  their  success  in  their  pro- 
fession, while  in  a  government  school  the  career  in  the 
profession  is  assured,  and  it  is  easy  for  the  authorities 
to  direct  the  studies  of  the  pupils  into  any  channel 
that  they  please.  A  school  of  this  sort  is  capable, 
therefore,  of  furnishing  as  high  a  general  education 
as  any  University, 

Like  old  Haileybury,  a  government  school  has  one 
decided  advantage  over  a  system  of  open  competition. 
It  fosters  an  esprit  de  corps,  which  is  sometimes  not 
very  attractive  to  outsiders,  but  without  which  no 
profession  can  do  its  best  work;  and  although  this 
will  undoubtedly  grow  up,  to  some  extent,  in  any 
case,  it  receives  a  forcible  impulse  from  early  associa- 
tion in  college  days.     In  such  a  school,  moreover,  the 


POSSIBILITY  OF  A  COLLEGE  225 

men  know  one  another  and  learn  the  reputation  of 
many  of  their  predecessors  in  former  classes.  This 
also  is  a  point  of  great  importance  where  men  are 
destined  to  work  in  the  same  colony,  almost  alone 
amid  a  large  native  population,  and  where  in  times  of 
peril  a  man's  action  may  be  guided,  and  his  efficiency 
affected,  by  his  confidence  in  the  character  of  a  col- 
league in  a  neighboring  province.  These  advantages 
were  talked  of  a  great  deal  in  India  at  the  time  of 
the  discussion  of  the  method  of  preparation  for  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  in  1876. 

Moreover,  an  institution  of  this  kind  does  not  con- 
flict with  popular  prejudices.  The  appointments  to 
it  are  not  limited  to  one  class  in  the  community,  but 
are  open  to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men ;  and  the 
plan  yields  something  to  the  desire  for  patronage  in 
appointments  and  to  their  equal  distribution  through- 
out the  different  States.  Such  a  concession  may 
violate  one's  ideal  of  what  things  ought  to  be  in  a 
model  republic,  but  we  live  in  a  world  of  facts,  and 
the  problem  before  us  is  to  find  a  practicable  scheme 
which  will  bring  the  colonial  service  to  the  highest 
possible  standard  of  character  and  efficiency.  Now, 
a  system  of  patronage  does  not  produce  exclusively 
bad  appointments ;  it  produces  both  good  and  bad, 
and  if  a  competitive  process  can  be  adopted  for  elim- 
inating the  bad,  the  remainder  will  be  good,  and  if  a 
sufficient  proportion  are  discarded,  the  quality  of 
those  who  are  left  will  be  high, 

Q 


226  THE  UNITED   STATES 

Regulations  of  Such  a  College 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  a  large  fraction,  say  one- 
half,  of  the  men  appointed  to  such  a  college  ought  to 
be  eliminated ;  and  to  make  this  effectual,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  evils  that  did  so  much  harm  to  Haileybury, 
it  is  important  to  provide  by  statute  that  no  man 
who  has  been  dismissed  on  account  of  misconduct,  or 
dropped  for  lack  of  scholarship,  shall  ever  be  rein- 
stated. In  order  to  prevent  unnecessary  expense  on 
the  part  of  the  Government,  and  do  as  little  injury  as 
possible  to  the  unsuccessful  students,  the  elimination 
ought  to  take  place  in  the  first  year.  In  fact,  the 
number  might  then  be  reduced  to  a  point  not  very 
far  from  the  quantity  probably  needed  in  the  ser- 
vice; a  sufficient  allowance  being  made  for  occa- 
sional losses  by  sickness,  misconduct,  and  lack  of 
diligence. 

With  a  four-years  course  of  study,  about  three- 
quarters  of  the  time  might,  perhaps,  be  given  to 
general  studies;  that  is,  to  subjects  whose  aim  is 
mainly  educational  rather  than  giving  information 
that  may  be  supposed  to  be  of  practical  value  in 
the  student's  subsequent  career.  The  other  quarter, 
which  would  not  necessarily  occupy  the  whole  of 
the  last  year,  might  be  assigned  to  the  technical 
studies  of  the  profession,  including,  of  course,  the 
history,  customs,  institutions,  and  languages  of  the 
Islands. 

The  plan  followed  at  West  Point  and  Annapolis, 


POSSIBILITY   OF  A  COLLEGE  227 

where  all  the  men  who  graduate  are  taken  into  the 
government  service,  is  by  far  the  best.  In  fact,  it  is 
difficult  to  see,  in  a  government  school,  which  leads 
to  no  career  but  the  service  of  the  State,  what  is  the 
meaning  or  object  of  a  degree  which  does  not  entitle 
the  holder  to  enter  that  service.  There  ought  to 
be  no  difficulty  in  keeping  up  a  sufficient  emulation 
in  scholarship  by  the  prospect  of  seniority  of  rank, 
and  by  other  devices,  and,  indeed,  the  obtaining 
of  a  degree  is  unavoidably  in  itself  to  some  extent 
competitive. 

Size  of  the  College 

A  really  serious  difficulty  is  likely  to  arise  from 
the  small  number  of  men  required ;  for  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  the  English  principle  of  managing 
Asiatic  colonies  is  the  right  one,  that  of  having  few 
officials,  but  insisting  that  they  shall  be  of  very  high 
grade,  and  paying  them  well.  It  is  not  easy  to  say 
just  how  many  officials  it  would  be  necessary  to 
recruit  annually  for  the  Philippines,  but  an  estimate 
can  be  made  by  a  comparison,  on  the  one  hand,  with 
the  Straits  Settlements  and  the  Federated  Malay 
States,  in  which,  owing  to  the  small  number  of  inhabi- 
tants, the  number  of  officials  would  be  greater  in  pro- 
portion to  the  population  than  in  the  Philippines,  and, 
on  the  other,  with  Java  and  the  other  Dutch  Indies, 
where,  owing  to  the  density  of  the  population,  the 
number  of  officials  would  be  less  in  proportion  to  the 
inhabitants.     An  estimate  obtained  in  this  way  is  far 


228  THE  UNITED   STATES 

from  accurate,  but  taking  it  for  what  it  is  worth,  it 
indicates  that  after  the  system  had  got  fairly  at 
work,  only  about  a  dozen  or  fifteen  new  officials 
would  be  wanted  a  year.  Assuming  that  number  as  a 
basis,  it  follows  that  the  entering  class  at  the  school 
would  contain  not  over  forty  members,  to  be  reduced 
to  a  little  less  than  twenty  at  the  end  of  the  year,  and 
that  the  three  upper  classes  would  contain  from  a 
dozen  or  twenty  men  apiece.  Now  this  is  distinctly 
too  small  a  number  of  students  to  get  what  is,  after 
all,  the  great  advantage  of  any  college ;  that  is,  the 
companionship  with  a  large  number  of  other  young 
men  in  an  intellectual  atmosphere.  In  order,  there- 
fore, to  make  such  a  college  produce  its  best  results 
it  would  be  necessary  either  to  connect  it  with  some 
other  institution  such  as  West  Point  or  Annapolis,  for 
example ;  or  else  to  educate  men  in  it  for  some  other 
career  besides  the  civil  service  of  the  Philippines. 

There  would  appear  to  be  an  appropriate  service 
for  this  purpose.  If,  as  is  very  generally  believed, 
the  United  States  is  likely  in  the  near  future  to 
increase  her  commerce  with  the  East,  we  ought  to 
have  a  numerous  and  thoroughly  efficient  consular 
service  in  China  and  the  neighboring  countries,  and  it 
does  not  seem  altogether  Utopian  to  suggest  that  our 
Asiatic  consuls  might  be  trained  in  the  same  college 
as  the  colonial  civil  servants.  There  are  many  points 
in  their  education  which  would  be  the  same ;  and,  in 
fact,  whether  we  exclude  the  Chinese  from  the  Philip- 
pines or  not,  some  of  the  colonial  officials  there  ought 


POSSIBILITY  OF  A  COLLEGE  229 

in  any  case  to  learn  their  language.  Such  an  Asiatic 
custom  service  would  probably  require  five  or  six 
recruits  a  year,  which  would  raise  the  total  number 
of  men  in  the  three  upper  classes  in  the  college  from 
a  little  over  fifty  to  somewhere  near  seventy-five. 

CONCLUDING   REMARKS 

It  is  clearly  impossible  to  select  all  the  members 
of  a  colonial  civil  service  on  any  system  at  once.  If 
a  college  were  created  immediately,  or  if  a  competi- 
tive system  of  examinations  were  established  this 
year,  it  would  be  a  long  time  before  the  young  men 
could  be  trained  for  their  duties,  and  after  they  were 
trained  they  would  still  be  too  young  for  some  years 
to  fill  positions  of  great  responsibility.  For  the 
moment,  therefore,  and  while  we  are  training  a 
corps  of  future  administrators,  we  must  select  the 
officials  in  the  best  way  we  can;  largely,  no  doubt, 
but,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  not  exclusively,  from  the  Army 
and  Navy.  In  fact,  it  would  probably  be  unwise  to 
make  any  system  of  appointment  too  rigid  until  it 
has  received  the  modifications  that  experience  always 
brings. 

The  experience  of  other  countries,  notably  that  of 
England,  shows  that  it  is  better  not  to  have  the  head 
of  the  administration,  the  Governor  General,  or  what- 
ever he  may  be  called,  a  member  of  the  civil  service. 
If  he  were  to  be  regularly  selected  from  that  service 
and  to  hold  his  place  permanently,  there  would  be 
great  danger  that  the  whole   administration  would 


230  THE   UNITED   STATES 

become  bureaucratic.  The  best  system  appears  to 
be  to  select  for  Governor  General  a  man  who  has 
not  necessarily  had  any  previous  connection  with 
the  colony,  but  who  is  a  man  of  the  world,  with 
broad  views,  and  to  make  a  change  every  few  years. 
In  such  a  case,  the  permanent  civil  service  supplies 
him  with  the  necessary  technical  information,  and  by 
its  esprit  de  corps  and  its  knowledge  of  details  it  holds 
him  strongly  in  check,  while  he,  on  the  other  hand, 
gives  elasticity  to  the  system,  and  tends  to  prevent 
the  growth  of  bureaucratic  red  tape  and  routine. 

As  these  pages  deal  only  with  the  selection  and 
training  of  officials,  it  would  be  out  of  place  to  dis- 
cuss the  necessity  of  giving  them  high  salaries  and 
liberal  pensions.  This  matter  has  already  been 
referred  to  in  the  introduction,  and  its  importance 
is  recognized  by  all  thinking  men.  It  is  only  nec- 
essary here  to  point  out  once  more  that  no  system 
of  recruiting  officials  can  possibly  be  a  success  unless 
such  inducements  to  enter  the  service  are  offered 
that  men  of  the  best  calibre  will  care  to  choose  it  as 
their  career. 


The   East   India   College   at 
Haileybury 


The  East  India   College  at 
Haileybury 

Introduction 
The  only  educational  experiment  tried  in  England 
for  the  training  together  of  public  officers,  appointed 
to  serve  in  a  civil  capacity  in  Asia,  was  made  in  the 
establishment  and  maintenance,  by  the  East  India 
Company,  of  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury, 
in  Hertfordshire.  For  fifty  years  this  College  lasted. 
It  educated  the  men  who  governed  India  during  the 
last  forty  years  of  the  Company's  rule,  when  the 
empire,  created  by  Lord  Clive,  saved  by  Warren 
Hastings,  expanded  and  placed  on  a  secure  footing 
by  Lord  Wellesley  and  Lord  Hastings,  assumed  a 
character  of  permanency,  and  presented  problems  of 
administration  rather  than  of  conquest;  it  trained 
the  civilians  who  met  the  shock  of  the  Sepoy  Mutiny 
and  reestablished  order  in  upper  India  after  that 
terrible  crisis ;  and  its  alumni  superintended  the 
organization  of  the  new  Indian  Empire  of  the 
Queen-Empress,  which,  after  the  crash  of  the  Mu- 
tiny, took  the  place  of  the  old  Indian  Empire  of 
the  Company.  Famous  men  taught  in  the  College  : 
Henry  Melvill,  the  greatest  pulpit  orator  of  the 
Church  of  England  during  his  time;  Malthus,  the 
celebrated  writer  on  political  economy;    Sir  James 

233 


234  INTRODUCTION 

Mackintosh,  eloquent  lawyer  and  distinguished  his- 
torian ;  and  Empson,  who  edited  the  Edinburgh 
Review  in  its  palmiest  days.  Pleasant  recollec- 
tions of  young  days  spent  together  by  men  whose 
esprit  de  corps  as  members  of  a  great  service  dated 
from  Haileybury  associations,  and  whose  friendships 
made  there  not  only  sweetened  their  lives  in  Indian 
exile,  but  made  them  a  band  of  brothers,  knowing 
each  other's  weak  and  strong  points,  stud  the  biogra- 
phies, autobiographies,  and  reminiscences  of  distin- 
guished Indian  governors  and  judges. 

Yet  no  adequate  history  of  the  College  has  ever 
been  written.  There  was  published,  indeed,  in  1894, 
a  volume  entitled  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  Col- 
lege," containing  a  "  List  of  the  names  of  all  Students 
educated  at  Old  Haileybury,  with  notes  of  their  sub- 
sequent Career,"  a  "  Record  of  Active  Services  of 
old  Haileyburians  during  the  Mutiny,"  an  essay  on 
Haileybury  "  College  Literature,"  and  a  brief  account 
of  the  "  Origin  of  the  East  India's  Company's  Civil 
Service  and  of  Haileybury  College "  by  various  au- 
thors, with  two  hundred  pages  of  "  Reminiscences  " 
of  his  connection  with  the  College  as  student  and  pro- 
fessor, by  Sir  M.  Monier- Williams,  the  late  Boden 
Professor  of  Sanskrit  at  Oxford.  The  historical  por- 
tion of  this  volume  is  jejune,  and  the  anecdotic  remi- 
niscences of  the  aged  Sanskrit  professor,  who  never 
accompanied  his  fellow-students  to  India  or  shared 
their  work  there,  are,  on  account  of  his  personal  limi- 
tations, unsatisfactory  testimony  to  the  value  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  235 

College  and  its  training,  and  leave  an  unfair  impres- 
sion on  the  mind  of  the  reader. 

It  is  the  aim  of  the  following  pages,  written  at  the 
request  of  Mr.  A.  Lawrence  Lowell,  as  the  result  of 
some  remarks  upon  his  paper  on  the  "  Selection  and 
Training  of  Colonial  Officials,"  read  before  the  Ameri- 
can Historical  Association  at  Boston,  to  show  the 
working  and  history  of  the  East  India  Company's 
system  of  patronage,  how  and  why  the  East  India 
College  was  founded,  what  Haileybury  really  accom- 
plished, its  history,  the  circumstances  under  which  it 
worked,  its  good  and  its  bad  points,  its  importance  as 
supplementing  the  system  of  patronage  in  appoint- 
ments to  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  and  the  fashion  of 
its  abolition  as  part  of  the  East  India  Company's  sys- 
tem, rather  than  on  account  of  any  fault  of  its  own. 
The  story  of  the  East  India  College,  it  has  been 
thought,  may  be  of  interest  to  those  Americans  who 
are  taking  thought  as  to  the  new  responsibilities  open- 
ing before  the  United  States  in  Asia ;  and  the  writer 
can  claim  some  right  to  tell  it,  since  his  grandfather, 
and  his  grandfather's  five  brothers  were  all  educated 
there,  together  with  numerous  relatives  in  the  next 
generation  ;  since  he  has  been  familiar  from  his  child- 
hood with  discussions  concerning  the  respective  merits 
of  the  old  Haileybury  civilians,  and  of  the  Competi- 
tion Wallahs  who  succeeded  them  ;  since  his  constant 
study  as  a  journalist  has  been  devoted  to  the  history 
of  Indian  administration ;  since  it  has  been  his  good 
fortune  to  devote  much  time  both  at  Cambridge  Uni- 


236  GOOD  MEN  UNDER  ALL  SYSTEMS 

versity  and  in  America  to  the- teaching  of  Indian  his- 
tory ;  and  since  he  himself  was  educated  at  the  great 
English  school  which  has  since  sprung  up  in  the 
buildings  of  the  old  East  India  College,  and  can 
claim  to  be,  in  a  different  sense  than  his  relatives, 
a  Haileyburian. 

Good  Men  obtained  under  the  Different  Systems 

No  one  who  has  studied  the  history  of  Indian 
administration  can  fail  to  see  that  good  men  and 
able  statesmen  came  to  the  front  under  every  system 
of  appointment  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  From 
the  ranks  of  the  commercial  clerks  sent  out  by  the 
East  India  Company,  after  their  handwriting  and 
knowledge  of  accounts  had  been  approved,  when  it 
was  only  a  trading  corporation,  came  not  only  War- 
ren Hastings  the  statesman,  but  Robert  Clive  the  sol- 
dier. Among  the  relatives  and  friends  of  Directors 
of  the  East  India  Company,  appointed  on  grounds  of 
kinship  or  other  connection  without  previous  training, 
when  trade  had  become  of  minor  importance  to  admin- 
istration, arose  the  first  Anglo-Indian  statesmen,  who 
made  and  ruled  Lord  Wellesley's  empire,  Josiah 
Webbe,  Neil  Benjamin  Edmonstone,  John  Adam, 
Charles  Metcalfe,  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  and  their 
companions.  Prominent  among  the  Directors'  nom- 
inees, who  were  trained  at  Haileybury,  were  the 
administrators  of  the  Company's  latter  period,  like 
James  Thomason  and  George  Russell  Clerk ;  the  sav- 
iours of  the  Company's  empire  in  India  during  the 


GOOD  MEN  UNDER  ALL  SYSTEMS  237 

Mutiny,  like  John  Lawrence  and  Bartle  Frere;  and 
the  governors  of  the  first  twenty  years  of  India  under 
the  Crown,  Uke  George  Campbell,  Richard  Temple 
and  Alfred  Lyall ;  while  the  Competition  Wallahs,  as 
the  men  chosen  by  open,  competitive  examination 
have  been  termed,  have  good  reason  to  boast  of  the 
excellent  public  servants  who  now  govern  India,  and 
of  such  administrators,  thinkers,  and  writers  as  T.  H. 
Thornton,  D.  Ibbetson,  C.  U.  Aitchison  and  W,  W. 
Hunter. 

Under  all  systems  the  good  men  have  come  to  the 
front.  The  rank  and  file  under  all  the  systems 
have  been  satisfactory,  since  the  reforms  of  Lord 
Cornwallis,  in  giving  adequate  pay  to  the  Indian 
civilians  and  in  regulating  their  status,  put  an  end  to 
the  practice  of  private  trade,  and  raised  the  standard 
of  official  morality  by  treating  as  criminal  all  attempts 
to  get  money  from  the  natives.  Earlier  corruption  in 
office  was  the  result  of  the  sudden  change  of  com- 
mercial clerks  into  sovereign  rulers ;  and  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  the  Indian  officials  of  the  last 
century,  when  making  money  out  of  official  position 
was  the  rule  in  England,  should  resist  the  tempta- 
tions which  beset  them  in  their  badly  paid  posts. 
As  against  the  higher  intellectual  attainments  of  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Competition  Wallahs  of  the  new 
generation,  must  be  set  the  camaraderie  of  the  Com- 
pany's Haileybury  nominees  —  a  camaraderie  the 
more  important  when  communication  with  Europe 
was  more  difficult  and  expensive  than  it  is  to-day  — 


238  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

and  the  greater  familiarity  with  Indian  habits  necessa- 
rily possessed  by  men  whose  families  had  hereditary 
connection  with  India  and  who  had  been  from  their 
youth  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  an  Indian  career. 
There  is  no  absolutely  perfect  way  in  which  young 
men  can  be  caught  in  youth  —  and  the  experience  of 
India  has  shown  that  men  must  go  to  Asia  young,  to 
resist  the  climate  and  to  do  their  best  work.  Under 
both  the  patronage  system  and  the  competitive  exam- 
ination system  good  men  can  be  obtained,  and  bad 
men  must  be  weeded  out ;  and  the  history  of  Eng- 
lish administration  in  India  cannot  be  used  to  prove 
the  superiority  of  the  one  system  over  the  other. 

History  of  the  Patronage  System 

At  any  rate,  in  the  last  century,  in  England,  there 
could  be  no  question  of  any  means  of  appointment 
to  the  public  service,  except  by  patronage.  Since 
the  London  East  India  Company  was  mainly  a  trad- 
ing corporation,  it  naturally  chose  the  fittest  commer- 
cial agents  it  could  find,  and  although  it  occasionally 
sent  out  men  of  birth  and  educ^ation,  like  Gerald 
Aungier  and  George  Oxenden  to  Bombay,  and  Elihu 
Yale,  Nathaniel  Higginson,  and  Thomas  Pitt  to 
Madras,  to  fill  responsible  posts,  the  rank  and  file 
of  its  bookkeepers  and  clerks  were  drawn  from  the 
usual  class  of  such  business  agents,  and,  since  Asiatic 
exile  was  not  attractive,  largely  from  the  great  Lon- 
don charity  school  of  Christ's  Hospital,  commonly 
known  as  the  Bluecoat  School.      Its  rival,  the  Eng- 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  239 

lish  East  India  Company,  followed  its  example  and 
largely  employed  the  service  of  discharged  servants 
of  the  London  Company.  After  the  two  were  united 
in  1708,  so  purely  commercial  were  the  qualifications 
of  the  United  Company's  agents  in  the  first  half  of 
the  last  century  that  they  were  not  equal  to  dealing 
with  the  more  statesmanlike  policy  of  the  famous 
French  Governor-General,  Dupleix. 

When,  however,  the  conquest  of  Bengal  by  Clive 
in  1757  was  followed  by  the  return  of  the  Company's 
clerks,  enriched  beyond  the  wealth  of  avarice,  to 
England,  where  they  pushed  up  the  price  of  seats 
in  the  House  of  Commons  by  their  rivalry  for  the 
purchase  of  rotten  boroughs,  English  politicians 
began  to  covet  the  rich  patronage  of  the  Directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  and  to  cast  greedy  eyes 
at  the  lucrative  places  which  it  fell  to  them  to  fill. 
Lord  North's  Regulating  Act  of  1773  commenced 
the  assault  on  the  Company's  patronage  by  estab- 
lishing a  Supreme  Court  of  Judicature  at  Calcutta, 
composed  of  a  chief  justice  and  three  judges  to  be 
appointed  by  the  Crown,  and  by  naming  in  the  Act 
the  first  Governor-General,  Warren  Hastings,  and  the 
first  four  members  of  a  council  to  advise  him,  of 
whom  three,  Monson,  Clavering,  and  Francis,  had  no 
Indian  experience  and  were  appointed  for  purely 
political  reasons.  This  invasion  of  the  Company's 
patronage  was  soon  followed  by  a  bolder  effort. 
Charles  James  Fox,  on  behalf  of  the  Coalition  Min- 
istry of  the  Duke  of  Portland,  brought  in  on  Novem- 


240  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

ber  1 8,  1783,  what  is  known  in  history  as  Fox's  India 
Bill.  It  has  been  customary  to  criticise  this  proposed 
measure  upon  the  lines  of  its  condemnation  by  its 
political  opponents  at  the  time,  as  a  scheme  to  obtain 
the  whole  patronage  of  India  for  the  supporters  of 
the  ministry  then  in  power.  Yet  upon  the  face  of 
it,  the  Bill  had  for  its  wise  aim  the  placing  of  the 
government  of  the  Company's  territories  in  India 
under  the  charge  of  a  board  of  seven  persons  ap- 
pointed for  a  term  of  years  by  the  Crown,  to  be  aided 
for  commercial  business  by  a  board  elected  by  the 
stockholders  of  the  East  India  Company. 

Nothing  could  be  more  expedient.  The  work  of 
administration,  carried  on  by  a  commercial  corpora- 
tion, was  anomalous  and  absurd.  Clive  had  clearly 
demonstrated  this  in  a  remarkable  letter^  to  William 
Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chatham,  in  which  he  sug- 
gested that  the  control  of  the  Province  of  Bengal, 
which  had  been  won  by  him  for  the  East  India  Com- 
pany, should  be  assumed  by  the  English  Govern- 
ment. Had  this  proposition  been  accepted,  the 
Company's  commercial  agents  would  never  have  had 
the  opportunity  to  show  their  cupidity  and  ineffi- 
ciency as  administrators  during  the  dark  period 
between  the  battle  of  Plassey  and  the  commence- 
ment of  the  government  of  Warren  Hastings.  But 
Pitt  declined  Clive's  suggestion.  He  feared  that  the 
unrestricted  possession  of  the  revenues  of  Bengal 
by   the   Crown   would   endanger   English    liberties.^ 

1  Dated  Jan.  7, 1759.   Malcolm,  "Life  of  Clive,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  1 19-125. 
2/^.,  Vol.  II.,  p.  126. 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  24 1 

And  not  without  reason,- as  the  efforts  of  George  III. 
to  establish  personal  government  in  the  succeeding 
reign  clearly  showed.  But  under  the  conditions  of 
English  party  government,  after  the  overthrow  of 
Lord  North,  the  Crown  meant  the  political  party 
which  happened  to  be  in  power.  It  was  dangerous, 
shouted  the  opponents  of  Fox,  to  leave  such  an 
immense  amount  of  patronage,  as  the  administration 
of  India  implied,  to  the  existing  Government.  "  As 
my  popularity  is  on  the  wane,"  Mr.  Powys,  a  leader 
of  the  Opposition,  imagined  Fox  saying  :  ^  — 

"  I  will  make  good  use  of  my  time :  the  whole  Indies 
shall,  for  this  reason,  contribute  to  the  splendour  and  per- 
manence of  my  power.  I  will  take  advantage  of  the  zenith 
of  my  power  to  build  me  a  golden  fortress  in  the  midst  of 
the  land  of  promise.  That  fortress  I  will  not  only  render 
impregnable,  but  garrison  with  a  select  number  of  picked 
friends  and  chosen  adherents,  on  whose  zeal  and  attachment 
I  can  safely  rely — a  fortress  which  no  contingency  shall  be 
able  to  assail  with  success  —  which  will  neither  yield  to  the 
call  of  the  people  nor  the  inclination  of  the  Sovereign." 

The  question  of  the  disadvantage  of  leaving  the 
administration  of  Indian  territory  to  a  trading  cor- 
poration was  lost  in  the  question  of  leaving  much  pat- 
ronage at  the  mercy  of  a  political  party.  Fox's  India 
Bill  was  rejected  in  the  House  of  Lords  through  the 
exercise  of  the  personal  influence  of  George  III.,  and 
in  the  following  year  Pitt's  India  Act  provided  the 
clumsy  machinery,  which  established   the  dual  gov- 

1  Thornton,  "  History  of  the  British  Empire  in  India,"  ed.  1859, 
p.  180. 


242  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

ernment  of  India  by  the  Court  of  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  and  by  the  Board  of  Control, 
represented  in  the  Cabinet  by  its  President,  that 
lasted  until  the  Company  was  abolished  in  1858. 
This  complicated  system  owed  its  continuance  to 
the  fear  of  existing  political  parties  that  the  patron- 
age of  Indian  places  would  be  a  party  danger. 
Indian  political  questions  were  from  1 784  in  a  stead- 
ily increasing  degree  settled  by  the  English  Cabinet, 
but  the  appointment  to  all  administrative  positions, 
except  the  Governor-Generalship  and  the  governor- 
ships of  Madras  and  Bombay,  which  had  to  be  submit- 
ted for  the  approval  of  the  Crown,  —  which  meant  of 
the  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  —  and  to  the 
civil  and  military  and  other  Indian  services  was  left 
to  the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company. 

While  the  East  India  Company  was  still  a  com- 
mercial as  well  as  a  governing  corporation,  the 
absurdity  of  its  maintenance  did  not  become  so 
manifest  as  later,  for  it  might  be  argued  that  it 
would  be  inexpedient  to  have  two  bodies  of  officials, 
the  one  employed  in  the  work  of  administration,  the 
other  in  the  regulation  of  commerce,  in  India,  But 
in  18 1 3  the  Company  was  deprived  of  its  commercial 
monopoly  of  the  trade  of  India,  and  its  functions 
in  India  became  purely  administrative.  One  of  the 
ablest  supporters  of  Pitt's  India  Act,  Lord  Gren- 
ville,  now  saw  the  weakness  of  his  former  position, 
and  he  proposed,  when  the  renewal  of  the  Company's 
charter  came  up  in  the  House  of  Lords  in  that  year, 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  243 

that  appointments  to  the  Indian  Military  Service 
should  be  given  to  sons  of  deceased  officers,  and  to 
the  Indian  Civil  Service  to  the  successful  candidates 
in  a  competition  open  to  the  boys  educated  at  the 
great  English  public  schools.^  This  proposition, 
which  is  interesting  as  the  first  public  advocacy  of 
the  system  of  selection  of  Indian  civilians  by  com- 
petitive examination,  though  restricted  to  certain 
schools,  met  with  but  little  support  in  Parliament 
or  in  the  public  press.  George  Canning,  among 
others,  opposed  the  proposition,  and  declared  that 
"  there  could  not  be  anything  radically  wrong  in  the 
system  which  had  produced  all  the  able  Company's 
servants,  who  had  given  their  evidence  before  the 
Parliamentary  Committees."  ^  The  character  of  the 
East  India  Company  had  greatly  changed  by  181 3. 
Its  stockholders  were  no  longer  mainly  London  mer- 
chants and  seekers  after  good  investments,  but  largely 
consisted  of  retired  Indian  officials  and  members  of 
great  Indian  agency  houses,  like  the  Palmers,  Arbuth- 
nots,  Lyalls,  and  Colvins.  These  stockholders  were 
not  so  desirous  of  receiving  large  or  even  good  inter- 
est on  their  stock,  as  appointments  for  their  relatives 
in  the  Indian  services,  civil,  military,  medical,  and 
ecclesiastical.  In  voting  for  Directors  of  the  Com- 
pany, they  thought  more  of  being  repaid  with  the 
crumbs  of  the  Directors'  patronage  than  with  an 
increase  of  interest,  and  business  experience  in  Indian 

^  Thornton,  op.  cit.,  p.  385. 

^  Kaye,  "  The  Administration  of  the  East  India  Company,"  p.  43a 


244  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

commerce  was  less  likely  to  lead  to  election  to  the 
Board  of  Directors  than  a  large  kinship  among  the 
holders  of  East  India  stock,  and  a  knowledge  of  how 
to  use  patronage  to  the  best  advantage. 

This  tendency  naturally  increased  after  the  loss  of 
the  East  India  Company's  trade  monopoly  with  India 
in  1813,  and  an  analysis  of  the  list  of  stockholders 
printed  in  any  of  the  volumes  of  the  "  East  India 
Register"  between  18 13  and  1833  shows  a  surpris- 
ingly large  number  of  famous  Anglo-Indian  names. 
It  was  quite  natural  that  a  man  who  had  spent  the 
best  years  of  his  hfe  in  India,  and  knew  conditions 
there,  should  like  his  sons  to  follow  in  his  footsteps, 
and  he  would  be  ready  to  give  more  than  the  market 
price  for  East  India  stock  in  order  to  get  places  for 
them.  Under  these  circumstances  it  was  no  wonder 
that  Lord  Grenville's  motion  failed.  The  East  India 
Company  was  tending  to  become  a  corporation  of 
place-seekers,  and  since  patronage  was  the  aim  of 
the  stockholders  and  the  distribution  of  it  the  raison 
d'etre  of  the  Court  of  Directors,  the  loss  of  the  Com- 
pany's monopoly  of  the  trade  of  India  was  less  fiercely 
fought  than  the  loss  of  its  patronage.  A  study  of 
the  names  of  the  appointees  to  the  East  India  Col- 
lege at  Haileybury  and  to  the  East  India  Company's 
Military  Seminary  at  Addiscombe  shows,  however, 
that  the  distributors  of  the  Company's  patronage 
were  wise  in  their  generation.  Since  it  fell  to  Par- 
liament to  decide  whether  that  patronage  should  be 
continued  to  the  Court  of  Directors  or  not,  the  Direc- 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  245 

tors  gave  plenty  of  appointments  to  families  of  politi- 
cal influence,  and  beside  the  Lyalls,  and  the  Plowdens, 
and  the  Stracheys,  and  the  Colvins,  and  the  Lush- 
ingtons,  and  the  Arbuthnots,  appear  the  names  of 
numerous  younger  sons  of  peers  and  of  influential 
members  of  the  House  of  Commons,  who  were  not 
expected  to  be  ungrateful  for  such  kindness  when 
the  battle  of  patronage  was  fought  out  in  the  legis- 
lature. 

In  1833  they  showed  their  gratitude.  The  Com- 
pany's charter  again  came  up  in  that  year  for  revision. 
The  monopoly  of  English  trade  with  China,  which 
had  been  left  to  the  East  India  Company  in  18 13, 
was  now  taken  from  it,  but  appointments  to  the 
Indian  services  were  for  the  last  time  entrusted  to  the 
Court  of  Directors.  Macaulay,  to  whom,  as  Secre- 
tary to  the  Board  of  Control,  it  fell  to  get  the  Reform 
Ministry's  bill  revising  the  charter  through  the  House 
of  Commons,  had,  according  to  Sir  G.  O.  Trevelyan,^ 
"imported  into  the  Act  of  1833  clauses  which  rear- 
ranged the  system  of  appointment  to  the  Civil  Service 
on  a  basis  of  competition.  But  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  had  been  too  strong  for  him. 
They  were  not  going  to  resign  without  a  struggle  the 
most  valuable  patronage  which  had  existed  in  the 
world  since  the  days  when  the  Roman  Senate  sent 
proconsuls  and  propraetors  to  Syria,  Sicily,  and  Egypt. 
Backstairs  influence  in  Leadenhall  Street  {i.e.  at  the 

1  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,"  ed.  New  York,  1877,  Vol. 
II.,  pp.  203-285. 


246  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

India  House  in  Leadenhall  Street,  the  London  head- 
quarters of  the  East  India  Company)  contrived  that 
the  clauses  embodying  Macaulay's  plan  lay  dormant 
in  a  pigeon-hole  at  the  Board  of  Control,  until  back- 
stairs influence  in  Parliament  at  length  found  an 
opportunity  to  procure  their  repeal."  All  that  could 
be  secured  was  a  government  proposal  that  four 
times  more  nominations  for  Haileybury  should  be 
given  than  were  needed,  and  that  a  competitive 
examination  should  take  place  between  these  nom- 
inees of  the  Directors  for  admission  to  the  College. 
But  this  proposal  was  lost,  and  for  twenty  more  years 
the  patronage  of  the  Court  of  Directors  was  contin- 
ued on  the  old  lines.  The  East  India  Company 
after  1833  became  solely  a  patronage  bureau.  The 
tendency  observed  since  181 3  was  accelerated.  Since 
all  the  commercial  privileges  of  the  Company  were 
abolished  by  the  Act  of  1833,  and  interest  on  stock 
was  paid  thereafter  out  of  the  government  funds,  the 
only  advantage  of  purchasing  East  India  stock  over 
consols  was  that  the  possession  of  the  former  con- 
ferred one,  two,  three,  or  four  votes  on  the  holder  of 
such  stock,  according  as  he  held  it  to  the  value  of 
;^iooo,  ;^3ooo,  ;^6cx)0,  or  ;^io,ooo,  in  the  election 
of  Directors. 

Appointments  under  the  Patronage  System 

It  appears  from  this  sketch  of  the  history  of  pat- 
ronage to  appointments  in  the  various  Indian  services 
that  its  existence  was  inevitable  and  of  historic  growth. 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  247 

Four  distinct  eras  may  be  distinguished.  During 
the  days  in  which  the  East  India  Company  was  a 
purely  commercial  corporation,  it  was  natural  that  it 
should  choose  its  clerks  and  agents  as  other  commer- 
cial corporations  then  did  and  still  do.  The  qualifica- 
tions needed  were  those  for  a  commercial  life,  but 
more  important  posts  of  superintendence  and  respon- 
sibility were  filled  from  the  first  by  men  of  a  different 
class  and  with  a  different  training. 

After  the  conquest  of  Bengal,  when  the  Company's 
servants  became  rulers,  with  great  opportunities  for 
acquiring  wealth,  posts  in  its  service  became  eagerly 
sought  after.  The  Directors  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany found  themselves  besieged  with  applications  for 
appointments,  and  many  persons,  sometimes  men  of 
mature  age,  who  had  held  high  office  in  England, 
among  them  William  Burke,  a  cousin  of  Edmund 
Burke,  made  their  way  at  their  own  expense  to  India 
in  the  hope  of  getting  places  from  the  Company's 
officials  on  the  spot.  The  hope  of  "  shaking  the 
pagoda  tree,"  as  the  acquisition  of  wealth  in  India 
was  called  in  the  last  century,  brought  out  a  new 
type  of  men  as  candidates  for  the  Company's  services. 
The  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company  did  not  at 
first  understand,  any  more  than  the  rest  of  their 
fellow-countrymen,  the  new  conditions,  and  many 
persons  were  sent  to  India  who  were  utterly  unfit  for 
Indian  life,  because  the  alteration  in  the  Company's 
situation  had  not  been  truly  appreciated.  Some  of 
the  Directors  naturally  sent  out   relatives  or  others 


248  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

having  claims  upon  them ;  the  more  politic,  who  de- 
sired to  be  reelected  to  the  Court,  gratified  important 
stockholders  with  appointments ;  some,  who  had  politi- 
cal ambitions  at  home,  made  use  of  their  patronage 
to  win  the  support  of  prominent  politicians,  or  of 
important  voters  in  rotten  boroughs ;  and  some  few 
sold  the  nominations  in  their  gift  for  what  they  would 
fetch.  What  prevented  the  class  of  men  sent  out  to 
rule  Bengal  from  being  more  unfit  than  they  were, 
was  that  Clive  and  others  like  him,  who  had  made 
fortunes  in  India,  purchased  East  India  stock  after 
their  return  to  England  and  to  a  considerable  extent 
ousted  from  the  Court  of  Directors  the  bankers  and 
merchants  who  had  hitherto  controlled  it.  The 
Directors  with  Indian  experience,  in  their  appoint- 
ments, looked  more  sharply  for  the  qualifications 
necessary  for  an  Indian  life,  since  they  knew  how 
much  the  Company's  power  in  India  depended  upon 
the  character  of  its  servants  there.  This  second  or 
transition  era  ended  in  1784  and  1793.  By  Pitt's  India 
Act  in  the  former  year,  it  was  enacted  that  writers  and 
cadets  should  be  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and 
eighteen  when  sent  to  India ;  and  by  Dundas's  Act 
in  the  latter  year,  the  age  was  fixed  at  from  fifteen 
to  twenty-two  and  the  Directors  were  required  to 
"  take  an  oath  that  they  would  not  accept  nor  take 
any  fee,  present,  or  reward  for  the  nomination  of  any 
person  to  any  place  in  the  gift  of  the  Company." 

From  1793  until  the  Company  finally  lost  its  com- 
mercial monopoly  in  1833,  the  Directors  in  making 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  249 

their  appointments  were  still  largely  swayed  by  con- 
siderations of  kinship,  and  by  the  desire  to  make 
friends  for  themselves  among  the  stockholders,  or  to 
win  political  support  for  the  Company  among  politi- 
cians. But  the  grosser  forms  of  favouritism  were 
checked  by  the  foundation  of  Haileybury  and  Addis- 
combe  and  by  a  fuller  knowledge  of  Indian  conditions. 
During  this  period  the  tendency,  already  noted, 
towards  the  purchase  of  India  stock  by  members  of 
the  Indian  services  or  by  members  of  mercantile  and 
banking  firms  doing  business  in  India,  steadily  in- 
creased, and  a  study  of  the  names  of  persons  admitted 
to  the  Company's  services  shows  an  increasing  pro- 
portion of  those  whose  fathers  or  relatives  had  had 
Indian  experience.  Often  during  this  period  nomina- 
tions were  given  to  sons  of  needy  Anglo-Indians,  who 
held  no  East  India  stock  and  were  without  political 
influence.  Take  for  instance  the  case  of  the  Law- 
rences, perhaps  the  most  famous  family  among  the  East 
India  Company's  servants.  The  three  elder  brothers, 
of  whom  the  most  famous  in  after  life  was  Sir  Henry 
Lawrence,  received  their  appointments  to  Addiscombe 
through  the  influence  of  Mr.  Hudleston,  who  had  been 
a  member  of  the  Madras  Civil  Service,  and  was  a 
Director  of  the  East  India  Company  from  1803  to 
1826.  This  gentleman's  wife's  cousin  was  married 
to  Colonel  Alexander  Lawrence,  who  had  distin- 
guished himself,  though  in  a  subordinate  capacity, 
in  India.  To  the  two  elder  sons  of  this  gallant  vet- 
eran he  gave  nominations  to  the  East  India  Com- 


250  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

pany's  Military  Seminary  at  Addiscombe,  and  for 
the  third  brother,  Henry,  he  obtained  a  similar  nomi- 
nation from  his  friend  and  fellow  Director,  Mr.  John 
Morris,  formerly  of  the  Bombay  Civil  Service.^  When 
the  turn  came  for  the  fourth  son  to  be  provided  for, 
Mr.  Hudleston,  who  had  then  ceased  to  be  a  Director, 
obtained  for  him  a  nomination  to  H  alley  bury  from 
the  same  friend  in  1827,  and  thus  the  future  saviour 
of  India,  John  Lawrence,  obtained  his  admission  to 
the  Indian  Civil  Service.  In  after  years,  when  the 
names  of  the  Lawrence  brothers  were  on  the  lips  of 
every  one  during  the  Sepoy  Mutiny,  the  daughter  of 
Mr.  John  Morris  used  to  claim  that  she  was  the  real 
saviour  of  India,  since  she  had  made  out  and  signed 
in  her  father's  name  the  nominations  of  both  Henry 
and  John  Lawrence. 

During  the  period  from  1833  to  1853,  after  the  last 
fragment  of  the  commercial  idea  of  the  East  India 
Company  had  disappeared,  and  the  stockholders  held 
East  India  stock  as  they  would  hold  any  other  gov- 
ernment security,  the  Court  of  Directors  became  en- 
tirely Anglo-Indian,  and  their  nominations  were  almost 
entirely  confined  to  members  of  Anglo-Indian  fami- 
lies. The  evolution  of  the  patronage  of  Indian  ap- 
pointments ran  therefore  in  natural  order  from  the 
commercial  clerks,  from  whose  ranks  sprang  Clive  and 
Warren  Hastings,  through  the  intervening  period  of 
mixed  political  and  commercial  interests,  to  the  final 

1  Edwardes  and  Merivale, "  Life  of  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,"  Vol.  I., 
p.  21. 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  25 1 

establishment  of  an  Anglo-Indian  oligarchy,  which 
regarded  the  government  of  India  as  its  prerogative 
and  provided  it  with  efficient  rulers,  whose  families 
had  been  long  connected  with  India  and  who  were 
closely  related  with  each  other  by  kinship  or  mar- 
riage. 

Scandals  under  the  Patronage  System 

The  method  of  distributing  the  patronage  to  Ind- 
ian civil  appointments  among  the  Directors  of  the 
East  India  Company  did  not  become  stereotyped 
until  1806.  During  the  early  commercial  days,  when 
places  in  India  were  not  greatly  sought  after,  it  may 
well  be  believed  that  nominations  to  clerkships  were 
made  mainly  by  those  Directors  who  held  the  larg- 
est interests  in  the  stock  of  the  Company,  and  paid 
most  attention  to  the  work  of  the  India  House.  Dur- 
ing the  transition  period  much  confusion  and  irregu- 
larity existed.  Many  of  the  most  lucrative  places 
in  Bengal,  were  filled  by  the  officials  on  the  spot 
from  the  rank  and  file  of  the  adventurers  who  had 
gone  thither  "  to  shake  the  pagoda  tree,"  and  many 
are  the  complaints  of  the  Directors  at  this  interfer- 
ence with  their  special  prerogative.  It  is  on  record  ^ 
that  the  distribution  of  patronage  to  the  writerships 
awarded  in  England  in  1778,  was  on  the  following 
scale :  eight  appointments  were  allowed  to  both  the 
Chairman  and  the  Deputy  Chairman  of  the  Court, 

1  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p,  10. 


252  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

two  to  each  member  of  the  Committee  of  Correspond- 
ence, and  one  to  each  of  the  other  Directors.  In 
February,  1806,  the  scale  of  distribution  was  fixed  as 
it  remained  until  the  abolition  of  the  Company,  giv- 
ing two  appointments  to  the  Chairman  and  Deputy 
Chairman  of  the  Court,  —  and  to  the  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control,  —  for  every  appointment  allowed  to 
each  of  the  other  Directors.  The  salary  of  the  Direc- 
tors was  fixed  at  a  very  modest  rate,  considering  the 
great  expense  involved  in  canvassing  for  votes  among 
the  stockholders,  for  while  they  had  to  hold  ;:^2000  of 
East  India  stock  for  qualification,  they  only  received 
£150  in  yearly  salary  up  to  1794,  and  jC^^o  from 
1794  to  1854.  This  low  salary,  however,  was  com- 
pensated by  the  extent  of  their  patronage.  Sir  J.  W. 
Kaye,  in  his  "  Life  of  Henry  St.  George  Tucker," 
who  was  a  director  from  1826  to  185 1,  and  Chairman 
of  the  Court  in  1834  and  in  1847,  says  outright :  — 

"  It  may  be  assumed,  in  the  first  place,  that  it  was  the  in- 
tent of  the  Legislature,  which  fixed  the  salary  of  an  East 
India  Director  at  an  amount  below  the  sum  apportioned' to 
a  junior  clerk  in  the  India  House,  that  the  patronage  of  the 
Company  should,  in  some  sort,  be  considered  as  the  per- 
quisites of  office.  .  .  .  Mr.  Tucker,  for  example,  held  his 
place  at  the  India  House  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Dur- 
ing that  period  he  sent  out  five  sons  to  India  in  the 
Company's  service;  and  he  provided  for  some  collateral 
relatives."  ^ 

1  Kaye,  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Henry  St.  George  Tucker," 
PP-  553-554- 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  253 

Sir  John  Kaye  goes  on  to  declare  that  Mr.  Tucker 
and  the  other  Directors  of  his  time,  after  providing 
for  their  relatives,  distributed  the  remainder  of  their 
patronage  on  public  grounds,  and  he  defends  nepo- 
tism on  this  large  scale  by  the  assertion  of  their  gen- 
erosity in  the  distribution  of  the  residuum  of  their 
nominations. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  in  the  latter  days  of  the 
Company's  existence,  when  the  Court  of  Directors 
was  simply  a  great  patronage  bureau,  nominations  to 
the  Indian  Civil  Service  were  honestly  given  and  not 
sold.  But  it  was  not  so  in  the  transition  period.  The 
Directors,  prior  to  1794,  looked  in  some  instances 
upon  the  sale  of  their  patronage  as  a  legitimate  sup- 
plement to  their  small  official  salaries.  If  some  of 
their  colleagues  chose  to  make  their  nominations  on 
personal  or  political  grounds,  why  should  not  they 
sell  theirs  for  money  down  ?  This  practice  caused 
so  much  open  scandal  that  by  Dundas's  Act,  33 
Geo.  III.,  c.  52,  sec.  160,  it  was  enacted  that  every  Di- 
rector, within  ten  days  after  his  election,  should  take 
an  oath  that  he  would  not  "  directly  or  indirectly 
accept  or  take  any  perquisite,  emolument,  fee,  present, 
or  reward,  upon  any  account  whatever,  or  any  prom- 
ise or  any  engagement  for  any  perquisite,  emolument, 
fee,  present,  or  reward  whatsoever,  for  or  in  respect 
of  the  appointment  or  nomination  of  any  person  or 
persons  to  any  place  or  office  in  the  gift  or  appoint- 
ment of  the  said  Company."  In  spite  of  this  strin- 
gent provision,  scandals  continually  arose  and  adver- 


254  THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM 

tisements  constantly  appeared  in  the  newspapers 
offering  to  obtain,  for  money,  nominations  to  the 
Company's  service.  As  a  result  of  these  scandals, 
a  Committee  of  the  Directors  was  appointed  in  1798, 
and  upon  its  report  it  was  resolved  that,  for  the 
future,  whenever  a  nomination  was  made,  it  had  to 
be  endorsed  with  the  signed  declaration  "  upon  his 
honour  "  of  the  nominating  Director,  that  he  had  not 
received  himself,  nor  had  any  other  person,  to  the  best 
of  his  knowledge  and  belief,  received  any  pecuniary 
consideration,  while  the  nominee  and  his  parent  or 
guardian  had  also  to  swear  that  they  were  equally 
free  from  all  complicity  in  the  forbidden  traffic.  Yet 
the  advertisements  continued  to  appear  in  the  news- 
papers, and  in  1809  a  Select  Committee  was  ap- 
pointed by  the  House  of  Commons  to  inquire  into 
the  existence  of  corrupt  practices  in  regard  to  nomi- 
nations to  the  Civil  and  Military  Services  of  the  East 
India  Company.  This  Committee  investigated  a  long 
list  of  cases  and  reported  that,  while  no  Director  had 
been  proved  guilty  of  any  corrupt  or  improper  con- 
duct, yet  many  of  them  had  given  nominations  to 
relatives  and  other  persons  who  had  sold  these  nomi- 
nations for  large  sums  of  money.^  The  result  of  this 
report  and  of  the  proofs  given  of  such  transactions 
was  that,  after  1809,  every  nominee  to  a  writership 
in  the  Civil  Service  had  to  enter  into  a  bond,  with 
good  security,  in  the  sura  of  ;^3000,  to  be  forfeited 

^The    report  is  printed   in  the  Asiatic  Annual  Register  for  1809, 
pp.  405-411. 


THE  PATRONAGE  SYSTEM  255 

to  the  Company  if  it  should  ever  appear  that  his 
nomination  had  been  in  any  way  bought,  sold,  or  ex- 
changed for  anything  convertible  into  a  pecuniary 
benefit. 

This  vigorous  condemnation  and  the  public  atten- 
tion drawn  to  these  open  scandals,  together  with  the 
various  measures  taken  for  preventing  their  repeti- 
tion, closed  the  worst  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
Company's  system  of  patronage.  After  the  renewal 
of  the  Charter  in  18 13,  followed  as  it  was  by  the 
greater  infusion  of  retired  Anglo-Indian  officers  into 
the  Court  of  Directors,  rumors  of  sale  of  appoint- 
ments became  less  frequent.  Occasionally  such  a 
rumor  would  be  raised,  but  the  Directors  were  too 
anxious  to  retain  their  lucrative  prerogative  to  risk 
losing  it  by  hushing  up  scandalous  proceedings. 
The  best-known  later  case  occurred  in  1827,  when 
the  Directors  got  on  the  track  of  the  sale  of  a  cadet- 
ship  to  the  Indian  army.  Immediate  and  public 
investigation  took  place ;  the  Director  involved,  to- 
gether with  the  stockholder  who  had  obtained  the 
nomination  from  him,  and  the  persons  who  had  adver- 
tised and  sold  it,  were  tried  in  the  Court  of  King's 
Bench  in  1828;^  and  although  the  principal  parties 
were  acquitted,  the  condemnation  of  one  of  the  sub- 
ordinate agents  in  the  business  gave  a  wholesome 

*  "  Proceedings  of  the  Court  of  Directors  ...  to  investigate  Trans- 
actions connected  with  an  Abuse  of  Patronage;  together  with  a  Report 
of  the  Trial  ...  on  the  6th  March,  1828,  the  King  on  the  Prosecu- 
tion of  the  East  India  Company,  against  Samuel  Sutton  and  Others." 
London,  1828. 


256  EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING 

warning  to  those  who  attempted  to  engage  in  such 
transactions.  So  thoroughly  indeed  was  the  evil 
stamped  out,  that,  when  the  Directors'  privilege  of 
nominating  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service  was  removed 
in  1853,  this  was  done  upon  the  declared  ground  of 
nepotism  and  not  of  corruption  on  the  part  of  the 
Court  of  Directors. 


Lack  of  suitable  Training  for  Indian  Officials  prior  to 
the  Foundation  of  the  College  of  Fort  William 

During  the  first  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  the  Eng- 
lish connection  with  India,  commercial  considerations 
were  paramount  in  the  appointment  of  agents,  whose 
main  duty  it  was  to  check  accounts  and  to  sell  im- 
ported goods  in  the  best  market,  at  the  highest  price, 
while  collecting  cargoes  for  exportation  which  should 
be  most  profitable  in  the  London  trade.  For  such 
work  as  this,  boys  educated  in  the  great  London 
charity  school  of  Christ's  Hospital  were  well  fitted, 
but  the  distance  of  India  from  England  and  the  need 
for  grasping  Asiatic  political  conditions  made  it  nec- 
essary to  have  men  of  another  stamp  and  of  higher 
training  for  responsible  posts.  No  one  understood 
this  better  than  the  most  famous  chairman  of  the 
London  East  India  Company,  Sir  Josiah  Child.  That 
far-seeing  statesman,  toward  the  close  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  in  explaining  the  appointment  of  Mr. 
Nathaniel  Higginson  to  be  Second  Member  of  Coun- 
cil at  Madras,  shows  in  the  following  passage  from  a 


EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING         257 

letter  to  the  Madras  Council  his  understanding  of  the 
situation  :  — 

"  Let  none  of  you  think  much  or  grudge  at  the  speedy 
advancement  of  Mr.  Higginson.  We  do  not  do  it  out  of 
any  partiahty  to  him,  for  he  has  no  relation  here  to  speak 
for  him,  nor  ever  had  the  ambition  to  think  of  such  a  thing 
himself;  neither  have  we  done  it  out  of  any  ill  feeling  or 
disrespect  to  any  others  now  being  of  our  Council,  but  sin- 
cerely as  we  apprehend  for  the  public  good ;  knowing  him 
to  be  a  man  of  learning,  and  competently  well  read  in  an- 
cient histories  of  the  Greeks  and  Latins,  which  with  a  good 
stock  of  natural  parts,  only  can  render  a  man  fit  for  Govern- 
ment and  Political  Science,  martial  prudence,  and  other 
requisites  for  ruling  over  a  great  city.  This,  we  say,  with 
some  experience  of  the  world  and  knowledge  of  the  laws 
and  customs  of  nations,  can  alone  qualify  men  for  such  a 
Government,  and  for  treaties  of  peace  or  war,  or  commerce 
with  foreign  Princes.  It  is  not  being  bred  a  boy  in  India, 
or  studying  long  there  and  speaking  the  language,  under- 
standing critically  the  trade  of  the  place,  that  is  sufficient  to 
*  fit  a  man  for  such  a  command  as  the  Second  of  Fort  St. 
George  is,  or  may  be  in  time ;  though  all  these  qualifica- 
tions are  very  good  in  their  kind,  and  essentially  necessary 
to  the  well  carrying  on  of  the  trade."  ^ 

Men  like  this  Mr.  Higginson,  who,  in  1692,  became 
governor  of  Fort  St.  George  or  Madras,  his  prede- 
cessor, Elihu  Yale,  and  his  successor,  Thomas  Pitt, 
were  a  great  deal  more  than  mere  commercial 
agents ;  and  the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany in  their  case,  as  in  that  of  the  most  distin- 
guished governors  of  Bombay  and  of  Fort  William  in 
Bengal,  showed  their  appreciation  of  the  difference 

1  Talboys  Wheeler,  "  E^arly  Records  of  British  India,"  p.  91. 
s 


258  EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING 

between  their  responsible  directors  of  policy  and  their 
ordinary  commercial  clerks.  The  ranks  of  the  lat- 
ter were  no  longer,  in  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  filled  by  Bluecoat  boys  from  Christ's  Hospi- 
tal, but  no  great  amount  of  learning  was  required  to 
qualify  for  a  position  among  them,  and  no  great 
amount  of  interest  to  obtain  an  appointment.  None 
of  the  biographers  of  Robert  Clive  seem  to  have 
found  out  how  the  son  of  a  respectable  country  law- 
yer received  his  appointment  to  the  Madras  Civil  Ser- 
vice in  1743.  The  record  of  his  schoolboy  days  is 
one  of  pranks  rather  than  of  study ;  and  there  is  no 
evidence  that  he  received  any  special  training  for  his 
position  in  India.  However,  the  details  of  the  train- 
ing and  qualifications  of  Clive's  most  famous  compeer, 
Warren  Hastings,  have  been  worked  out  by  Sir 
Charles  Lawson.^  Hastings  was  the  most  brilliant 
scholar  of  his  time  at  Westminster  School,  and  the 
head  master  was  so  indignant  at  the  shutting  off  of 
his  classical  education,  that  he  himself  offered  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  Hastings  at  the  University. 
But  it  so  happened  that  Hastings'  guardian,  a  Lon- 
don merchant  named  Chiswick,  was  a  Director  of  the 
East  India  Company,  and  considered  that  India 
afforded  a  better  career  to  his  ward  than  Oxford. 
Accordingly,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  Warren  Hastings 
was  taken  from  Westminster  and  sent  to  the  writing 
master  of  Christ's  Hospital  for  private  instruction  in 
accounts  and  caligraphy.  These  were  the  only  sub- 
1  "  The  Private  Life  of  Warren  Hastings,"  pp.  30-33. 


EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING         259 

jects  in  which  the  Directors  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany at  that  time  expected  their  servants  to  be 
proficient,  and  a  f  ac-simile  of  the  petition  upon  which 
Warren  Hastings  was  admitted  into  the  Company's 
service  in  1 749  simply  states  that  "  he  has  been  bred 
up  to  writing  and  accounts,"  a  statement  which  care- 
fully ignores  his  classical  education,  and  emphasizes 
his  brief  training  for  a  commercial  life. 

During  the  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
when  the  East  India  Company  had  become  a  ruling 
and  a  governing  power,  its  servants  were  still  sent  to 
India  without  any  special  training  for  their  future 
functions.  For  some  years,  at  least,  a  demand  seems 
to  have  been  made  for  a  knowledge  of  bookkeeping 
and  merchant's  accounts,  showing  that  the  Directors 
still  fondly  regarded  themselves  as  the  chiefs  of  a 
commercial  corporation.  This  appears  clearly  from 
the  biography  of  Sir  John  Shore,  afterwards  Lord 
Teignmouth,  who  was  one  of  the  Company's  most 
distinguished  civil  servants,  and  who  filled  the  place 
of  Governor-General  between  Lord  Cornwallis  and 
Lord  Wellesley.  Although  Shore  had  shown  himself 
a  good  classical  scholar  at  Harrow  School,  he  was 
obliged  to  abandon  his  literary  studies  when  ap- 
pointed to  the  Bengal  Civil  Service  by  an  old  family 
friend,  and  to  spend  nine  months  in  a  commercial 
school  at  Hoxton,  studying  "  Bookkeeping  and  Mer- 
chants' Accounts."^     It  is  specifically  stated  that  the 

^  Teignmouth,  "  Memoir  of  the  Life  and  Correspondence  of  John, 
Lord  Teignmouth,"  Vol.  I.  pp.  9-  1 1. 


260  EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING 

Directors  of  the  East  India  Company,  in  1768,  when 
Shore  obtained  his  appointment,  required  that  their 
civil  servants  should  be  versed  in  these  subjects,  and 
by  impUcation  in  nothing  else. 

Five  and  twenty  years  later,  however,  not  even  this 
simple  equipment  seems  to  have  been  required, 
Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  one  of  the  ablest  of  Lord 
Wellesley's  pupils,  and  the  greatest  statesman  who 
ever  governed  the  Bombay  Presidency,  seems  to  have 
undergone  no  educational  test  whatever.  He  writes 
to  his  mother  in  March,  1 795  :  — 

"  I  am  extremely  happy  to  inform  you  that  my  uncle  [the 
Hon.  William  F.  Elphinstone,  formerly  captain  of  a  Com- 
pany's ship;  Director,  1 791-1824]  has  got  me  appointed 
to  Bengal,  and  on  Saturday  last  he  sent  for  me  home,  and 
told  me  that  I  was  to  go  with  this  fleet,  which  sails  in  six 
weeks.  He  also  desired  me  to  apply  to  writing  and  cipher- 
ing, and  to  leave  off  Greek."  ^ 

Charles  Metcalfe,  whose  career  compares  in  useful- 
ness and  success  with  that  of  Elphinstone,  was  the 
son  of  a  Director,  Sir  T.  T.  Metcalfe  (Director, 
1 789-1 8 1 2),  who  had  made  his  fortune  in  Bengal  as 
Agent  for  Military  Stores.  He  was  destined  from 
the  first  for  India,  and  his  father  evidently  considered 
a  classical  training  of  value  for  an  Indian  civilian, 
for  he  sent  the  boy  to  Eton.  But  when  Charles  Met- 
calfe left  Eton  in  1800  to  take  up  his  appointment  in 

1  Sir  T.  E.  Colebrooke,  "  Life  of  the  Honourable  Mountstuart  Elphin- 
stone," Vol,  I.,  p.  9. 


EARLY  LACK  OF  TRAINING  26 1 

Bengal,  he  seems  to  have  been  subjected  to  no  exami- 
nation of  any  sort.^ 

It  may  be  said  that  Elphinstone  and  Metcalfe 
were  men  whose  superior  abilities  would  have 
brought  them  to  the  front  under  any  circumstances, 
and  it  would  be  more  just  to  the  haphazard  fashion 
in  which  patronage  worked  during  the  later  half 
of  the  eighteenth  century  to  cite  Lord  Wellesley's 
complaint  of  the  intellectual  unripeness  of  the  major- 
ity of  young  men  who  were  sent  to  India  in  his  time. 
In  his  celebrated  "  Minute  containing  his  Reasons 
for  the  Establishment  of  a  College  at  Calcutta,"  the 
great  Governor-General  stated  that  the  young  men 
arriving  in  Bengal  to  fill  situations  in  the  Company's 
Civil  Service  fell  into  two  classes,  those  whose  educa- 
tion had  been  originally  erroneous  and  defective, 
because  limited  to  commercial  knowledge  and  not 
extended  to  liberal  studies,  and  those  the  early 
promise  of  whose  studies  had  been  unseasonably 
broken.  In  neither  case  was  any  opportunity 
afforded  to  make  up  early  deficiencies.  This  it 
was  which  led  to  the  first  systematic  attempt  to 
provide  for  the  professional  education  of  Indian 
civil  servants.  The  cases  that  have  been  cited  of 
Hastings  and  Shore  and  Elphinstone  and  Metcalfe 
prove  that  even  under  the  most  unpromising  circum- 
stances good  men  were  procured  for  service  in  India, 
but  it  may  well  be  believed  that  the  majority  of  their 

^  Sir  J.  W.  Kaye,  "  The  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Charles,  Lord 
Metcalfe,"  2d  ed.,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  7-15. 


262  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM 

contemporaries  suffered  from  the  entire  absence  of 
any  thorough  professional  training  after  the  per- 
functory idea  of  qualifying  in  bookkeeping  and  com- 
mercial accounts  had  been  abandoned. 

The  College  of  Fort   William 

Although  it  was  Lord  Cornwallis  who  placed  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  upon  an  honourable  footing, 
and  recognized  by  the  award  of  sufficient  pay,  and 
by  the  stringent  prohibition  of  private  trade,  that  the 
East  India  Company's  servants  had  passed  from 
commercial  clerks  to  rulers  and  judges,  it  was  Lord 
Wellesley  who  first  perceived  that  this  change  implied 
a  difference  of  education.  One  of  the  most  celebrated 
of  educational  documents  in  connection  with  the  sub- 
ject treated  by  Mr.  Lawrence  Lowell  is  the  Minute 
of  Lord  Wellesley,  of  which  the  title  has  already 
been  given.  It  was  first  printed  in  full  in  the  Asi- 
atic Annual  Register  for  1802,1  and  has  since  been 
reprinted  in  the  collection  of  Lord  Wellesley's 
despatches  by  Montgomery  Martin,  and  in  the 
Selection  edited  by  Mr.  Sidney  James  Owen.  Its 
fame  rests  upon  the  fact  that  it  recognized  for  the 
first  time  in  an  official  document  the  need  of  a  liberal 
education  for  men  appointed  to  official  positions  in 
Asia,  upon  which  should  be  superadded  instruction 
in  Oriental  languages,  and  other  special  studies.     In 

iThe  Minute  was  dated  August  18,  1800,  and  appears  in  the  vol- 
ume of  the  Register  for  1802  with  a  distinct  pagination. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM  263 

the  first  part  of  the  Minute,  Lord  Wellesley  described 
in  grandiose  language  the  duties  of  Indian  civilians 
under  the  new  order  of  things,  and  pointed  out  that 
these  duties  are  "to  dispense  justice  to  millions  of 
people  of  various  languages,  manners,  usages,  and 
religions ;  to  administer  a  vast  and  complicated  sys- 
tem of  revenue  throughout  districts  equal  in  extent 
to  some  of  the  most  considerable  kingdoms  in  Europe; 
to  maintain  civil  order  in  one  of  the  most  populous 
and  litigious  regions  of  the  world."  He  then  dwelt 
upon  the  necessary  training  for  the  effective  fulfil- 
ment of  these  duties,  and  upon  the  necessity  for  a 
knowledge,  not  only  of  the  "  history,  languages,  cus- 
toms, and  manners  of  the  people  of  India,  with  the 
Muhammadan  and  Hindu  codes  of  law  and  religion," 
but  also  of  the  general  principles  "of  ethics,  civil 
jurisprudence,  the  laws  of  nations,  and  general  his- 
tory." But  knowledge,  he  went  on,  was  not  the  only 
requirement  for  a  European  official  in  Asia.  Moral 
training  was  necessary  to  maintain  the  standard  of 
uprightness,  industry,  and  self-discipline,  upon  which 
alone  the  respect  of  Asiatics  for  European  authority 
is  based.  In  the  second  part  of  his  Minute,  Lord 
Wellesley  criticised  the  defective  and  haphazard 
fashion  of  selecting  and  training  Indian  officials 
hitherto  pursued.  Brought  out  from  England 
before  good  habits  were  formed,  the  boys  who 
joined  the  Indian  Civil  Service  were  apt  to  plunge 
into  extravagance  and  debauchery'  through  the 
absence  of  any  provision  for  guiding  their  steps  on 


264  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM 

their  arrival.  They  were  supposed  to  learn  their 
duties,  and  incidentally  to  pick  up  the  native  lan- 
guages and  a  knowledge  of  native  customs,  as  junior 
assistants  to  high-placed  officials.  Sometimes  they 
might  get  good  training,  but  if  their  chief  was  indo- 
lent or  busy  they  were  left  pretty  much  to  their  own 
devices,  and  when  they  came  by  seniority  to  fill  impor- 
tant appointments,  they  were  often  entirely  ignorant 
of  their  duties  and  of  how  to  perform  them.  In  the 
third  part  of  his  Minute,  Lord  Wellesley  declared 
that  these  disadvantages  could  best  be  removed  by 
the  establishment  of  a  great  college  at  Calcutta,  in 
which  all  young  civilians  arriving  in  India  should 
pursue  a  regular  course  of  studies,  both  liberal  and 
Oriental,  for  two  years.  Regular  collegiate  life  on 
the  model  of  an  Oxford  college,  with  a  common  table 
and  college  discipline,  was  to  be  observed,  and  no 
civilian  was  to  receive  a  post  until  his  character  had 
been  tested  and  his  duties  learned.  The  college  was 
to  be  under  the  direct  supervision  of  the  Governor- 
General  as  Visitor,  and  the  young  men  were  to  learn 
to  know  each  other  and  their  future  work  under  the 
eye  of  the  supreme  government. 

Lord  Wellesley  went  ahead  in  characteristic  fash- 
ion, and  founded,  on  the  lines  he  had  indicated  in  his 
Minute,  a  great  establishment,  which  was  termed  the 
College  of  Fort  William.  The  regulation  ^  establish- 
ing it  was  passed  on  July  18,  1800,  but  its  foundation 
was  antedated  to  May  4,  as  the  first  anniversary  of 

1  Asiatic  Annual  Register  for  1801,  pp.  104-108. 


THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM  265 

the  capture  of  Seringapatam.  The  College  was 
established  with  a  Provost  and  a  Vice-provost,  and 
a  large  staff  of  professors  of  all  sorts  of  subjects, 
and  elaborate  arrangements  were  made  for  the 
instruction  and  discipline  of  the  young  and  recently 
arrived  civilians.  This  magnificent  foundation  was 
based  upon  the  approval  given  by  the  Court  of  Direc- 
tors of  the  East  India  Company  to  Lord  Wellesley's 
encouragement  of  a  so-called  Oriental  Seminary, 
started  by  Dr.  John  Gilchrist  upon  his  own  initiative 
in  Calcutta.  Lord  Wellesley  had  taken  much  inter- 
est in  Gilchrist's  scheme,  and  had  awarded  prizes 
out  of  the  government  funds  to  certain  young  civil- 
ians who  had  voluntarily  taken  lessons  in  Hindustani 
and  Persian  from  Gilchrist.  When,  however,  the 
Directors  learned  that  their  impetuous  and  uncon- 
trollable Governor-General  had  gone  ahead  and  built 
up  on  Gilchrist's  modest  foundation  the  expensive 
structure  of  a  great  college  for  the  instruction  of  the 
few  young  men  sent  out  to  India  every  year,  they 
promptly  proceeded  to  disavow  the  new  creation. 

Students  of  Lord  Wellesley's  magnificent  policy, 
misled  by  his  grandiloquent  language,  are  apt  to 
think  that  the  great  proconsul  was  always  in  the 
right  and  was  unjustly  checked  in  all  things  by  his 
niggardly  employers.  There  was,  however,  a  good 
deal  of  truth  in  the  arguments  alleged  by  the  Direc- 
tors of  the  East  india  Company  in  their  despatch 
of  January  27,  1802,  ordering  the  dissolution  of  the 
College  of  Fort  William  and  the  reestablishment  of 


266  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM 

Dr.  Gilchrist's  Seminary.^  They  pointed  out  that 
the  instruction  in  native  languages  contemplated  by 
Gilchrist  met  with  their  entire  approval,  but  that 
they  did  not  consider  it  necessary  to  go  any  further 
in  the  direction  of  giving  in  India  a  general  edu- 
cation to  their  servants.  The  idea  of  providing  an 
improved  general  education  in  England,  which  was 
to  eventuate  in  the  creation  of  Haileybury,  was 
already  germinating,  and  it  was  rightly  believed  that 
such  general  education  could  be  more  cheaply  and 
healthfully  given  in  the  mother  country.  The  Direc- 
tors might  further  have  argued  on  the  absurdity  of 
having  a  single  college  at  Fort  William  in  Bengal 
to  instruct  their  servants  in  the  languages  used  upon 
the  Madras,  Bombay,  and  China  establishments, 
when  these  latter  languages  could  be  much  better 
learned  on  the  spot.  Lord  Wellesley  replied  to  the 
strictures  of  the  Court  of  Directors  in  a  long  letter 
of  August  5,  1802,  in  which  he  reiterated  the  advan- 
tages of  his  College  of  Fort  WiUiam,  and  tried  to 
prove  that  the  revenues  of  India  could  well  bear  the 
great  expense.  He  concluded  with  the  remark  that 
he  closed  his  letter  "with  a  perfect  confidence  that 
the  Honourable  Court  will  issue,  without  delay,  a 
positive  command  for  the  continuance  of  the  College 
of  Fort  William  until  further  orders."  ^ 

Lord  Wellesley  was  wrong.     The  College  of  Fort 
William,  as  he  had  originally  designed  it,  ceased  to 

^  Asiatic  Annual  Register  for  1805,  State  Papers,  pp.  1-4. 
2  Asiatic  Annual  Register  for  1805,  State  Papers,  pp.  4-29. 


FOUNDATION  OF  HAILEYBURY  267 

exist,  but  his  ideas  for  the  training  of  Indian  civilians 
were  adopted.  The  general  education  in  liberal  stud- 
ies and  the  moral  discipline  of  superintendence  and 
companionship  which  he  advocated  were  provided, 
after  his  time,  at  Haileybury,  while  his  College  of 
Fort  William  took  up  the  functions  of  Dr.  Gilchrist's 
Seminary  and  became  a  sort  of  graduate  school  in 
Oriental  languages,  through  which  young  Bengal 
civilians  had  to  pass  before  being  gazetted  to  regular 
posts  in  the  service,  while  similar  schools  were  cre- 
ated at  Madras  and  Bombay.  With  these  functions 
the  College  of  Fort  WilUam  continued  to  exist  until 
1854,  when  the  new  regulations  for  entering  by  com- 
petition into  the  Indian  Civil  Service  were  promul- 
gated. The  College  of  Fort  William,  as  designed 
by  the  great  Governor-General,  did  not  become  a 
lasting  force  for  the  training  of  Indian  civil  servants, 
but,  as  a  result  of  his  famous  Minute,  the  Directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  were  forced  to  take 
cognizance  of  the  need  of  providing  their  nominees 
with  professional  training,  and  thus  the  foundation 
of  Haileybury  was  indirectly  the  outcome  of  Lord 
Wellesley's  wisdom. 

The  Foundation  of  Haileybury 

The  foundation  of  the  East  India  College  at 
Haileybury  was  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the  plan 
proposed  in  the  letter  of  the  Court  of  Directors  to 
Lord  Wellesley,  Umiting  the  scope  of  studies  at  the 


268  FOUNDATION  OF  HAILEYBURY 

College  of  Fort  William.  The  Directors  had  an- 
nounced their  intention  of  meeting  the  strictures  of 
Lord  Wellesley  on  the  need  for  general  education 
and  for  moral  discipline  in  this  letter,  and  in  1804 
a  committee  was  appointed  to  report  upon  the  foun- 
dation of  an  educational  establishment  in  England. 
This  committee  reported  that  civil  servants  should 
not  be  sent  to  India  under  the  age  of  eighteen,  and 
that,  before  proceeding  to  take  up  their  appoint- 
ments, they  should  be  given  some  systematic  training 
together,  in  liberal  studies  as  well  as  in  the  elements 
of  the  Oriental  languages.  The  question  at  once 
arose  as  to  whether  the  proposed  establishment 
should  be  a  school  or  a  college.  Many  of  the  criti- 
cisms directed  against  Haileybury  in  the  early  days 
arose  from  a  difference  of  opinion  in  this  respect. 
The  original  committee,  while  speaking  of  a  college, 
seem  to  have  had  in  mind  a  school,  for  they  requested 
permission  to  engage  a  head-master  and  teachers. 
School  instruction  and  school  discipline  might  have 
been  what  was  most  needed,  had  all  students  pro- 
ceeded to  India  at  the  age  of  eighteen.  But  eighteen 
was  the  minimum,  not  the  specified,  age,  and  it  was 
ridiculous  to  enforce  school  regulations  on  young 
men  from  nineteen  to  twenty-one,  which  was  the 
maximum  age.  Malthus,  the  celebrated  writer  on 
political  economy,  who  was  one  of  the  original 
professors  at  Haileybury,  pointed  out  the  difficulties, 
which  arose  from  the  persistence  of  some  Directors 
in  treating  the  East  India  College  as  a  school,  in  a 


FOUNDATION  OF  HAILEYBURY  269 

well-reasoned  pamphlet,  published  in  1817.^  From 
the  very  first,  as  Malthus  points  out,  Haileybury  had 
to  run  the  gauntlet  of  criticism  from  those  who 
wanted  a  school,  and  throughout  the  whole  of  its 
existence  the  East  India  College  suffered  from  the 
fact  that  it  was  regarded  as  half  school  and  half 
college,  educating  young  men  of  college  age  under 
many  of  the  restrictions  of  school  discipline.  This 
was  just  what  was  not  wanted.  Lord  Wellesley  had 
emphasized  the  need  of  some  such  discipline  as  a 
college  affords,  so  as  to  prevent,  by  a  stage  of  tran- 
sition, the  plunging  of  raw  schoolboys  at  once  on 
their  arrival  in  India  into  a  life  of  absolute  freedom, 
set  about  with  strange  temptations.  It  was  then, 
with  an  aim  excellent  in  itself,  but  ill  defined  and 
differently  understood  by  rival  parties  among  the 
stockholders  of  the  East  India  Company,  that  the 
East  India  College  came  into  existence. 

The  buildings  of  Hertford  Castle,  which  were  after- 
ward the  Hertfordshire  County  Jail,  were  leased  from 
the  Government,  a  staff  of  teachers  was  chosen,  and 
the  East  India  College  was  opened  for  the  instruction 
of  its  first  class  in  February,  1806.  But  even  before 
the  college  was  organized,  it  had  been  resolved  to 
build  a  suitable  home  for  the  new  institution ;  and  in 
October,  1805,  the  estate  of  Haileybury  in  Hertford- 
shire, about  two  miles  from  Hertford  and  twelve  from 

1 "  Statements  respecting  the  East  India  College,  with  an  Appeal 
to  Facts  in  Refutation  of  the  Charges  lately  brought  against  it  in  the 
Court  of  Proprietors,"  by  the  Rev.  T.  K.  Malthus,  London,  1817. 


2/0  FOUNDATION  OF  HAILEYBURY 

London,  was  purchased.  In  May,  1806,  the  first 
stone  of  the  new  building  was  laid,  and  in  1809  the 
students  and  professors  moved  into  the  completed 
quadrangle  from  their  temporary  quarters  in  Hert- 
ford Castle.  The  style  of  architecture  adopted  by 
Mr.  Wilkins,  the  architect,  involved  a  grand  fa9ade 
with  many  columns,  like  the  same  architect's  design 
for  the  National  Gallery  in  London.  Behind  this 
fa9ade  was  a  large  quadrangle  about  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  square,  which  is  in  size  the  largest  of  any  quad- 
rangle in  any  educational  building  in  England,  except 
the  Great  Quad  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  The 
three  most  imposing  features  of  the  buildings  were 
the  College  Chapel ;  the  College  Hall,  where  the  stu- 
dents dined  together  after  the  fashion  of  college  life 
in  other  English  colleges ;  and  the  College  Library, 
which  stood  between  the  Chapel  and  the  Hall. 
These  three  buildings  filled  the  side  of  the  quadran- 
gle which  presented  its  classic  fagade  to  the  traveller, 
along  the  high  road  from  Hertford  to  London.  Two 
sides  of  the  quadrangle  were  mainly  occupied  with 
the  students'  rooms  arranged  in  four  blocks,  one 
room  being  allotted  to  each  student;  the  professors' 
houses  occupied  the  corners ;  and  the  side  of  the 
quadrangle  which  contained  the  great  college  gate 
was  flanked  with  lecture-rooms  and  quarters  for 
bachelor  professors. 

The  distance  of  the  college  buildings  from  the 
nearest  town  gave  Haileybury  certain  pecuUar  advan- 
tages over   educational   foundations    in    towns    and 


FOUNDATION  OF  HAILEYBURY  2/1 

cities.  It  was  near  enough  to  London  for  easy 
recourse  to  the  capital,  even  in  the  old  coaching  days ; 
while  it  was  enough  in  the  country  to  promote 
healthy  country  life  and  the  possibility  of  healthy 
exercise.  Full  opportunity  was  given  for  athletics, 
although  fox-hunting  with  packs  of  hounds  that  met 
in  the  neighbourhood  was  sternly  discouraged  by  the 
authorities ;  rowing  on  the  river  Lea  was  popular ;  an 
athletic  field  was  laid  out  for  cricket  and  other  ath- 
letic sports ;  while  the  beautiful  country  around  gave 
plenty  of  opportunity  for  long  country  rambles.  In 
favor  of  the  healthiness  of  the  College,  it  may  be 
stated  that  out  of  the  1985  students  who  spent  more 
or  less  time  at  Haileybury  during  the  fifty  years  of  its 
existence,  only  two  deaths  there  are  reported,  and 
one  of  these  was  the  result  of  a  bathing  accident. 
The  East  India  Company  was  wise  enough  to  pro- 
vide a  healthy  home  for  the  physical  well-being  and 
development  of  its  future  civil  servants,  and  in  the 
record  of  Haileybury,  although  many  criticisms  were 
directed  against  its  educational  and  disciplinary  policy 
no  complaint  was  ever  raised  as  to  the  material  and 
physical  surroundings  of  the  students. 

History  of  Haileybury 

The  history  of  Haileybury  can  best  be  noted  under 
the  names  and  careers  of  its  four  Principals.  The 
first  Principal,  who  took  charge  of  the  infant  institu- 
tion in  Hertford  Castle,  superintended  its  removal  to 
Haileybury,    and   remained   in   charge   until    18 15, 


2/2  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Henley.  Of  this  gentleman 
little  is  known  except  that  he  was  sixty-six  years  old 
when  he  was  appointed  to  the  principalship  of  the 
East  India  College,  that  he  commenced  his  career  as 
a  teacher  as  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral  Philoso- 
phy at  WilUam  and  Mary  College,  Virginia,  in  1 770 ; 
that  he  returned  to  England  at  the  outbreak  of  the 
American  Revolution  and  became  an  assistant  master 
in  Harrow  School ;  that  he  was  afterward  a  beneficed 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England ;  and  that  he 
was  a  fairly  prominent  man  of  letters  and  contributor 
to  literary  periodicals.  How  he  obtained  his  appoint- 
ment is  nowhere  stated.  His  name  is  not  to  be  found 
among  those  of  prominent  Anglo-Indian  families  and 
it  must  be  assumed  that  he  was  in  some  way  suffi- 
ciently well  known  to  Directors  of  importance  to 
obtain  the  situation.  There  are  no  printed  records 
of  his  administration,  but  it  may  be  asserted  with 
confidence  that  he  was  not  the  right  man  for  the 
place  and  that  the  severe  criticisms  on  the  College 
during  its  early  days  were  due  to  his  lack  of  appre- 
ciation of  the  difficulties  of  his  position.  Although 
Malthus  nowhere  in  his  pamphlet  upon  these  criti- 
cisms mentions  Dr.  Henley  by  name,  it  is  easy  to  see, 
not  only  from  the  omission  of  such  mention,  but  by 
reading  between  the  lines,  that  Dr.  Henley  did  not 
realize  these  difficulties  and  did  not  feel  the  impor- 
tance of  his  opportunity.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
the  criticisms  to  which  Malthus  replied  were  levelled 
at  the  College  at  about  the  time  when  Dr.  Henley 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  273 

resigned;  the  three  most  serious  outbreaks  in  the 
history  of  the  College,  including  the  riot  of  181 1, 
occurred  during  the  nine  years  of  his  administration ; 
and  proofs  can  be  given  in  dealing  with  the  beginning 
of  Dr.  Batten's  administration  that  a  more  vigorous 
hand  was  needed  than  that  of  the  poor  old  clergyman, 
who  retired  in  18 15  at  the  age  of  seventy-five  and 
died  immediately  afterwards. 

Applying  our  modern  ideas,  or  indeed  applying  the 
simplest  common  sense,  it  should  have  been  obvious 
that  an  old  clergyman  of  sixty-six,  whose  college  ex- 
perience had  ended  thirty  years  before,  and  whose 
work  since  then  had  been  teaching  schoolboys,  was 
not  the  right  man  to  start  upon  true  lines  a  unique 
institution.  The  Court  of  Directors  presumably  knew 
and  cared  little  about  educational  qualifications  and 
the  idea  in  the  minds  of  some  of  them  that  they 
wanted  a  school,  not  a  college,  doubtless  led  them 
into  the  sad  mistake  of  appointing  a  schoolmaster 
to  be  the  first  Principal  of  their  college.  From  an 
educational  point  of  view,  then,  Haileybury  had  a 
bad  start.  All  students  of  the  history  of  education 
know  how  any  new  foundation  may  be  handicapped 
for  years  by  an  unwise  selection  of  its  first  faculty. 
The  responsibility  for  this  bad  start  and  for  the  want 
of  perception  of  definite  aim  or  the  grasp  of  definite 
policy  rests  not  so  much  upon  the  poor  old  gentle- 
man, whose  name  alone  lives  from  his  having  been 
the  first  Principal  of  Haileybury,  as  upon  the  men 
who  appointed  him.     It  will  be  seen  that  throughout 


274  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

its  history  Haileybury  was  hampered  by  the  perpetual 
interference  in  its  internal  affairs  of  the  Directors, 
by  their  refusal  for  many  years  to  intrust  ultimate 
authority  to  their  Principal  and  his  faculty,  by  their 
overriding  of  measures  taken  for  the  preservation 
of  college  discipline,  and  by  their  discordant  views 
on  the  functions  of  the  institution  ;  but  their  most 
serious  mistake  of  all  was  in  failing  to  select  a  vigor- 
ous and  able  man  to  set  the  college  firmly  upon  its 
feet,  for  had  such  a  man  been  chosen,  he  would  have 
set  the  standard  and  avoided  or  defied  interference 
by  his  success. 

It  is,  further,  not  fair  to  throw  the  blame  for  treat- 
ing the  East  India  College  as  a  school  and  its  stu- 
dents as  schoolboys  solely  upon  Dr.  Henley,  in  the 
light  of  the  original  prospectus  of  the  College,  issued 
in  1806.^  In  that  prospectus  it  is  distinctly  stated 
that,  since  no  institution  had  been  started  by  private 
enterprise  for  the  training  of  their  servants,  the  Com- 
pany had 

"judged  it  to  be  a  duty  incumbent  upon  themselves  to 
devise  and  institute  a  Plan  that  might  not  only  fill  up  the 
time  of  those  Young  Persons  designed  for  the  Civil  Service 
of  India ;  but  should  also  afford  the  best  means  of  qualifying 
them  to  discharge  the  duties  of  their  station  there ;  and  to 
send  them  thither  early  enough  to  engage  in  all  the  con- 
cerns of  active  life.     This  Plan  consists  of  a  College,  for  the 

1  "  A  Preliminary  View  of  the  Establishment  of  the  Honourable  East 
India  Company  in  Hertfordshire  for  the  Education  of  Young  Persons 
appointed  to  the  Civil  Service  in  India,"  East  India  College,  1806  re- 
printed in  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  243-252. 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  275 

reception  of  Students  at  the  age  of  fifteen,  to  remain  till  they 
are  eighteen ;  or  till  they  are  sent  by  the  Court  of  Direc- 
tors to  their  respective  destinations.  The  Students  will  be 
instructed,  by  Courses  of  Lectures,  upon  a  plan  similar  to 
that  adopted  in  the  Universities." 

This  shows  that  the  founders  of  the  College  contem- 
plated a  much  younger  class  of  students  than  those 
who,  in  after  years,  were  trained  there,  and  had  no 
clearly  defined  ideas  as  to  its  functions.  So  dis- 
tinguished a  Director  as  Mr.  Charles  Grant,  who  was 
Deputy  Chairman  of  the  Court  of  Directors  in  1807 
and  1808,  and  Chairman  in  1809,  spoke  of  the  institu- 
tion indifferently  as  a  college  and  as  a  school,  in  a 
debate  at  the  India  House,  on  July  5,  1809;!  and  if 
the  Chairman  of  the  Court  was  himself  uncertain,  it 
could  hardly  be  expected  that  Dr.  Henley  should  solve 
the  question.  A  further  proof  that  the  school  idea 
was  paramount  in  the  minds  of  those  responsible  for 
the  conduct  of  the  institution  iii  its  early  days  may  be 
found  from  a  consideration  of  the  fact  that,  out  of  the 
353  students  admitted  during  the  nine  years  of  Dr. 
Henley's  principalship,  a  considerable  number,  at 
least  seven  per  cent,  remained  at  the  College  for 
more  than  two  years.  Such  a  length  of  training  and 
many  other  considerations  implied  a  large  entrance 
class  of  boys  of  fifteen,  and  it  was  natural  that  both 
the  curriculum  and  the  discipline  of  these  early  days 
should  differ  from  that  of  the  latter  days,  when  the 
minimum  entrance  age  was  seventeen,  and  the  course 

*  "The  Asiatic  Annual  Register  "  for  1809,  p.  231. 


2^6  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

was  fixed  at  two  years.  The  complaints  made  by  the 
neighbours  of  the  College  in  these  early  days  were,  as 
appears  from  Malthus'  pamphlet,  of  schoolboy  pranks, 
and  it  is  unfair  to  saddle  the  later  Haileybury  of  Bat- 
ten and  of  Melvill  with  the  charges  made  against  the 
school  of  earlier  date  over  which  Henley  presided. 

The  most  flourishing  period  in  the  history  of  Hailey- 
bury was  covered  by  the  principalship  of  the  second 
Principal  of  the  College,  the  Rev.  Joseph  Hallett 
Batten.  It  was  during  this  period  that  the  most  fam- 
ous graduates  of  Haileybury,  among  them  the  great 
administrators  John  Lawrence  and  James  Thomason 
and  Charles  Trevelyan,  spent  their  period  of  training 
at  the  College  upon  Hertford  Heath,  and  that  Hailey- 
bury definitely  took  its  status  as  a  college  of  higher 
education  instead  of  a  mere  preparatory  school.  By 
the  Act  of  Parliament  renewing  the  charter  of  the 
East  India  Company,  passed  in  1813,  it  was  enacted 
that  no  person  should  be  sent  to  India  to  join  the 
Civil  Service,  without  having  spent  four  full  terms,  or 
two  years,  at  the  East  India  College,  and  having 
received  at  the  end  of  his  residence  there  a  certifi- 
cate that  he  had  duly  obeyed  all  the  rules  and  regu- 
lations of  the  College.  This  provision  of  the  act 
was  a  little  too  strict,  for  the  growth  of  the  Com- 
pany's territories  in  India  made  greater  demands  for 
trained  officials  than  the  East  India  College  was  able 
to  meet.  Therefore,  in  1 826,  an  act  was  passed  mak- 
ing it  lawful,  for  the  next  three  years,  to  send  out  to 
India  a  certain   number   of   qualified   persons   who 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  277 

showed  themselves  able  to  pass  a  satisfactory  exam- 
ination without  having  been  through  the  Haileybury 
course.  At  the  end  of  this  three  years,  by  an  act 
passed  in  1829,  students  at  the  College  were  allowed 
to  count  for  pension  all  time  spent  there  above  the 
age  of  seventeen  as  service  in  India,  and  under  this 
act  it  was  made  possible  for  diligent  students  of  the 
proper  age,  among  whom  it  may  be  noted  John  Law- 
rence was  one,  to  complete  their  college  course  in  a 
single  year.  The  College  curriculum  received  more 
of  a  university  character  under  Dr.  Batten ;  the  age 
of  the  students  at  entrance  gradually  rose  until  they 
received  and  deserved  the  treatment  due  to  men 
rather  than  to  boys;  student  publications  began  to 
appear ;  a  better  class  of  nominees,  mainly  from  the 
great  English  schools,  were  sent  to  the  College, 
as  the  character  of  the  Directors  altered ;  and  the 
Haileybury  traditions,  and  especially  the  camaraderie, 
which  was  to  do  so  much  for  the  Indian  Civil  Service, 
came  into  existence.  Some  of  the  most  interesting 
reminiscences  of  Haileybury,  written  by  famous  grad- 
uates of  the  College,  which  will  be  noted  later,  refer 
to  the  Haileybury  of  this  period. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  happy  change  was 
due  in  large  part  to  the  superior  fitness  for  the  office 
of  Principal  of  Dr.  Batten  over  Dr.  Henley.  The 
one  book  hitherto  published  upon  Haileybury  fails  to 
do  justice  to  Dr.  Batten's  administration.  Sir  M. 
Monier- Williams,  who  was  responsible  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  book,  entered  the  College  as  a  student 


278  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

during  the  principalship  of  Dr.  Batten's  successor, 
Mr.  Le  Bas,  and  was  a  professor  under  the  last  Prin- 
cipal, Dr.  Melvill.  His  account  of  the  College  deals 
therefore  with  it  as  it  existed  in  its  latter  days,  and 
for  its  efficiency  under  Dr.  Batten  testimony  must  be 
looked  for  elsewhere,  in  the  reminiscences  of  its  grad- 
uates of  that  time.  Dr.  Batten  had  advantages  over 
Dr.  Henley  in  that  he  was  a  graduate  of  an  English 
University,  and  that  at  the  time  of  his  appointment 
he  was  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life.  Joseph  Hallett 
Batten  was  born  in  1 778  ;  he  graduated  at  Cambridge 
as  Third  Wrangler  in  1799;  and  was  elected  a  Fel- 
low of  Trinity  College  in  1801.  When  the  East  In- 
dia College  was  opened  in  1806,  he  joined  its  staff  as 
a  professor  of  classics,  or,  as  it  was  somewhat  gran- 
diloquently termed.  Professor  of  Humanity  and  Phi- 
lology. He  seems  to  have  had  no  Anglo-Indian 
connections,  and  to  have  owed  his  appointment  as 
Principal,  in  181 5,  to  the  fact  that  he  had  shown  him- 
self a  better  teacher  and  disciplinarian  than  his  asso- 
ciates. He  was  only  thirty-six  at  the  time  of  his 
appointment,  and  the  general  opinion  held  of  his 
ability  was  shown  by  the  facts  that  he  was  a  Fellow 
of  the  Royal  Society  and  a  Select  Preacher  before 
the  University  of  Cambridge.  While  he  held  the 
office  of  Principal,  he  delivered  lectures  on  Divinity 
and  Classics,  and  according  to  Sir  M.  Monier-Will- 
iams,  he  was  highly  esteemed  as  a  lecturer.^  Dr. 
Batten's  principalship  lasted  for  twenty-three  years 

^  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  145. 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  279 

or  for  nearly  half  the  life  of  the  East  India  College, 
and  863  students  out  of  the  total  of  1985  who  entered, 
and  743  out  of  the  1 754  who  passed  through  the  Col- 
lege at  H  alley  bury  into  the  Indian  Civil  Service 
belonged  to  this  period.  Despite  one  or  two  disturb- 
ances, discipline  seems  to  have  been  much  better 
maintained  under  him  than  under  either  his  prede- 
cessor or  his  successor,  and  both  the  intellectual  and 
the  moral  tone  of  the  College  were  raised  and  main- 
tained by  him. 

The  same  thing  cannot  be  said  with  regard  to 
Dr.  Batten's  successor,  the  Rev.  Charles  Webb  Le 
Bas.  This  learned  clergyman,  whose  name  is  chiefly 
remembered  for  his  somewhat  verbose  biographies 
of  Cranmer,  Jewel,  and  other  worthies  of  the  Church 
of  England,  which  are  more  remarkable  for  their 
piety  than  for  their  historical  value,  would  appear 
to  have  been  unfitted  for  the  successorship  to  Dr. 
Batten  by  his  age,  his  deafness,  and  his  personal 
peculiarities.  He  was  born  in  1779,  and  was  there- 
fore fifty-eight  years  old  when  he  became  Principal 
of  Haileybury ;  he  was  a  distinguished  scholar  at 
Cambridge,  and  had  been,  like  Dr.  Batten,  a  Fellow 
of  Trinity  College ;  he  had  joined  the  staff  of  Hailey- 
bury as  Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Dean  in  1813; 
and  he  seems  to  have  been  selected  for  the  principal- 
ship  on  the  ground  of  long  service  rather  than  of 
fitness.  Sir  M.  Monier-WiUiams,  who  speaks  of  Le 
Bas  with  great  affection,  nevertheless  gives  the  key- 
notes for  his  failure  as  Principal  of  the  East  India 


280  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

College.  To  begin  with,  Mr.  Le  Bas  was  very  deaf, 
and  had  on  this  account  abandoned  the  bar  for  teach- 
ing. His  admirer,  without  seeming  to  realize  how 
this  affliction  must  have  diminished  the  Principal's 
fitness  for  his  office,  gives  more  than  one  illustration 
of  its  awkward  results.  But,  even  more  than  his 
deafness,  Mr.  Le  Bas's  tendency  to  use  inflated  and 
absurd  diction  must  haA^e  made  him  seem  ludicrous 
to  the  students,  and  have  destroyed  the  influence  he 
ought  to  have  had  over  them. 

"  It  was  often  his  habit,"  writes  Sir  M,  Monier- Williams,^ 
"  to  coin  some  word  derived  from  Greek  or  Latin  as  more 
forcible  in  its  effect,  especially  on  a  youthful  ear,  than  any 
Anglo-Saxon  equivalent.  For  instance,  stone-throwing  in 
the  quadrangle  was  forbidden,  and  if  he  happened  to  detect 
anyone  in  the  act  he  would  send  for  the  culprit,  and  bewilder 
him  by  saying,  *  Sir,  I  perceive  that  you  are  a  lithobolizer. 
Are  you  not  aware  that  lithobolizing  is  prohibited?  Go,  sir, 
and  never  lithobolize  any  more,  or  punishment  will  over- 
take you ! ' " 

A  man  who  would  talk  like  this,  after  the  fashion  of 
Dr.  Samuel  Johnson,  to  an  average  English  college 
boy,  could  not  be  expected  to  retain  his  respect. 
Several  somewhat  querulous  letters  from  Mr.  Le  Bas, 
complaining  of  the  College  buildings,  of  the  Court 
of  Directors,  and  of  his  own  situation,  are  printed  by 
Sir  M.  Monier-Williams,  and  the  impression  left  on 
the  mind  of  the  reader  is  one  of  wonder  that  such  a 
man  should  ever  have  been  selected  for  the  headship 

1 "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  149. 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  28 1 

of  Haileybury  College.  One  thing  is  certain,  that 
his  incapacity  caused  the  College  to  pass  through 
troublous  times  during  the  years  of  his  principalship, 
and  it  was  resolved  upon  his  retirement,  after  a  stu- 
dent riot  in  the  autumn  of  1843^  to  choose  a  new 
Principal  from  the  outside,  who  should  be  intrusted 
with  absolute  and  ultimate  authority  over  both  stu- 
dents and  professors.  Such  a  measure  was  obviously 
necessary,  for  some,  at  least,  of  the  professors  of 
Haileybury,  notably  the  Dean,  Mr.  Jeremie,  seem  to 
have  been  as  unfit  to  deal  with  high-spirited  young 
men  as  Mr.  Le  Bas  himself. 

The  Principal  selected  to  repair  the  damage  done 
by  the  weak  administration  of  Mr.  Le  Bas  was  the 
most  celebrated  preacher  in  the  Church  of  England 
of  his  time,  the  Rev.  Henry  Melvill.  He  had  had 
some  experience  as  a  college  tutor  at  Cambridge, 
where  he  had  graduated  as  Second  Wrangler  in 
1 82 1,  but  he  doubtless  owed  his  appointment  rather 
to  the  fact  that  his  brother,  J.  C.  Melvill,  was  Secre- 
tary to  the  Court  of  Directors.  His  fame  as  ,a 
preacher  was  very  great,  and  his  common  sobriquet 
was  "  golden-mouthed  Melvill."  His  position  as 
Principal  was  made  very  difficult  by  the  dislike  of 
the  Dean,  Mr.  Jeremie,  to  recognize  his  authority, 
a  dislike  heightened  by  the  fact  that,  under  the  new 
constitution,  Melvill's  authority  extended  over  all  the 
professors.  Mr.  Jeremie,  further,  had  been  a  candi- 
date for  the  principalship,  and  considered  that  as 
senior  professor  he  had  acquired  a  right  to  succeed 


282  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

Mr.  Le  Bas,  as  Le  Bas  had  succeeded  Batten,  and 
Batten  Henley.  But  from  all  accounts  Mr.  Jeremie 
would  have  made  as  weak  a  Principal  as  his  friend 
Le  Bas,  for  he  had  neither  the  capacity  for  main- 
taining discipline  nor  any  executive  ability.  This 
friction,  which  was,  of  course,  well  known  to  the 
students  and  taken  advantage  of  by  them,  made 
Melvill's  position  exceedingly  difficult  up  to  1850, 
when  Mr.  Jeremie  left  Haileybury,  on  being  ap- 
pointed Regius  Professor  of  Divinity  at  the  Univer- 
sity of  Cambridge.  Several  of  the  other  professors 
during  the  first  years  of  Melvill's  principalship  would 
have  been  trials  to  any  vigorous  head  of  a  great  edu- 
cational institution.  The  eccentricities  of  Professor 
Richard  Jones,  the  successor  of  Malthus,  and  of  Pro- 
fessor Francis  Johnson,  the  ill-health  and  indistinct- 
ness of  speech  of  Professor  Empson,  during  their 
latter  days,  after  years  of  faithful  service,  were 
enough  to  damage  that  respect  for  authority  which 
alone  can  make  such  an  institution  as  Haileybury 
successful,  while  by  his  own  showing  Professor 
Monier-Williams,  among  the  younger  men,  was 
unduly  concerned  over  the  cut  of  coat  preferred  by 
the  students  in  his  lecture-room.^ 

When  he  had  got  the  College  well  in  hand,  the 
prospect  of  its  abolition  loomed  up  before  its  last 
Principal.  It  was  generally  known  that  when  the 
Company's  charter  came  up  for  revision  in  1853  a 
vigorous  attempt  would  be  made  to  destroy  the  patron- 

1  '•  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  113-115. 


HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY  283 

age  system.  Although  the  overthrow  of  the  patron- 
age system  did  not  necessarily  imply  the  abolition 
of  Haileybury,  Melvill  did  not  see  his  way  to  separate 
the  cause  of  the  College  from  the  cause  of  the  Direc- 
tors. He  was  to  some  extent  compensated  for  the 
coming  loss  of  his  position  by  being  made  a  Canon  of 
St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  he  seems  to  have  witnessed 
the  latter  days  of  the  old  East  India  College  without 
any  very  keen  feeling  of  regret.  During  his  princi- 
palship  Melvill  seems  to  have  retained  his  authority 
over  the  students  largely  by  his  national  reputation 
as  a  preacher,  which  made  them  proud  of  him,  and 
partly  by  his  open-handed  hospitality  and  social 
qualities.  The  intellectual  standard  of  the  College 
stiffened  in  his  day,  for  the  improved  previous  educa- 
tion of  the  students  allowed  for  the  raising  of  the 
standard  of  the  term  and  of  the  final  examinations. 
Yet,  in  spite  of  this,  a  larger  proportion  of  students 
entering  the  College  passed  out  of  it  successfully  than 
in  the  days  of  his  three  predecessors.  The  possibility 
of  getting  through  the  two  years*  course  in  a  single 
year  had  been  stopped  in  1839,  and  the  higher  and 
more  systematic  training  given  had  its  effect  upon 
the  character  of  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  The  men 
who  built  up  the  new  India  of  the  Queen-Empress 
were  largely  men  of  Melvill's  training.  Alfred  Lyall 
and  Richard  Temple  and  Theodore  Hope  and  Auck- 
land Colvin  all  belonged  to  this  era,  and  some  idea  of 
the  Haileybury  of  Melvill's  time  might  be  learned 
from  their  reminiscences. 


284  HISTORY  OF  HAILEYBURY 

In  all  457  Indian  civilians  graduated  during  the 
fourteen  years  of  Melvill's  principalship,  out  of  the 
496  who  entered,  and  many  of  them  continued  in 
active  work  in  India  until  recently.  Discipline  was 
much  better  maintained  than  under  Le  Bas,  and 
although  Melvill's  principalship  suffered  in  compari- 
son with  Batten's,  at  first  from  the  intefnal  troubles 
that  have  been  noted,  and  later  from  the  knowledge 
of  impending  doom,  yet  it  will  bear  comparison  for 
intellectual  and  moral  education  with  the  period  of 
Batten's  administration.  The  last  year  of  Melvill's 
principalship,  the  last  year  of  the  existence  of  old 
Haileybur.y,  during  which  the  College  held  only  the 
survivors  of  the  patronage  system,  was  the  terrible 
year  of  the  Sepoy  Mutiny,  1857,  when  H  alley  bury 
men  proved  their  mettle,  and  justified,  in  circum- 
stances of  terrible  difficulty,  the  training  they  had 
received  in  the  old  East  India  College  on  Hertford 
Heath. 

Qualifications  for  Entrance  into  Haileybury 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  the  foundation  of 
the  East  India  College  was  in  large  part  due  to  Lord 
Wellesley's  criticism  on  the  unfitness  for  the  Civil 
Service  of  many  of  the  young  men  sent  out  to  India. 
Those  Directors  of  the  Company  who  possessed 
Indian  experience  were  very  solicitous  of  improving 
the  social  standard  of  their  nominees.  It  was  made 
therefore  one  of  the  conditions  for  entrance  to  the 
East    India    College   from   the   very   first  that  the 


ENTRANCE  EXAMINATIONS  285 

nominee  should  bring  with  him  a  testimonial  from 
the  school  he  had  last  attended  covering  the  two 
years  before  his  nomination,  and  should  pass  an 
examination  in  the  subjects  generally  taught  in  the 
English  public  schools.  In  the  early  days  of  the 
East  India  College  the  youth  of  those  entering 
caused  the  standard  to  be  low,  and  it  was  frankly 
intended  to  shut  out  boys  who  had  not  been 
educated  upon  the  lines  of  the  great  English  public 
schools.  Malthus  admits  this  in  his  pamphlet  already 
cited,  for  he  says,  writing  in  1 8 1 7  :  — 

**  Every  candidate  for  admission  into  the  College  is  required 
to  produce  a  testimonial  from  his  schoolmaster,  and  to  pass 
an  examination  in  Greek,  Latin,  and  Arithmetic  before  the 
Principal  and  Professors.  This  previous  examination  at  once 
prevents  persons  from  offering  themselves  who  have  not  re- 
ceived the  usual  school  education  of  the  higher  classes  of 
society ;  and  those  who  offer  themselves  and  are  found  defi- 
cient are  remanded  till  another  period  of  admission.^ " 

This  very  slight  educational  qualification  was  all 
that  was  demanded  for  entrance  to  Haileybury  until 
the  latter  part  of  Batten's  administration.  A  slight 
raising  and  specification  of  the  standard  may  be  seen 
in  the  regulations  which  appear  in  the  "  East  India 
Register  and  Directory  "  for  1826,  in  which  it  is  stated 
that :  — 

"  Candidates  will  be  examined  in  the  classics  and  arithmetic, 
and  if  they  be  not  found  to  possess  a  competent  knowledge 
of  at  least  two  of  the  Latin  classics,  the  easier  parts  of  the 

1  Malthus,  p.  47. 


286  ENTRANCE  EXAMINATIONS 

Greek  Testament,  and  the  principles  of  grammar,  as  well  as 
the  common  rules  of  arithmetic,  together  with  vulgar  and 
decimal  fractions,  they  will  be  remanded  until  the  com- 
mencement of  the  next  term." 

Such  a  test  was  not  likely  to  throw  out  many  of 
the  Directors'  nominees,  and  merely  demanded  that 
they  should  have  received  the  elements  of  a  classical 
education,  which  at  that  time  practically  implied  that 
they  should  have  been  educated  at  one  of  the  great 
English  schools.  The  examination  during  Batten's 
principalship,  as  during  the  earlier  period  of  which 
Malthus  wrote,  seems  always  to  have  been  conducted 
by  the  Haileybury  faculty  at  the  College  itself  ;  and 
it  was  there,  at  any  rate,  that  John  Lawrence,  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  qualified  himself  for  entrance  in  1827.^ 

When  the  College  became  definitely  a  place  of 
higher  education,  and  abandoned  its  school  features 
with  the  increasing  age  of  its  students,  the  character 
of  the  entrance  examination  was  raised  so  as  to  be  a 
test  of  higher  qualifications.  It  may  be  safely  as- 
serted that  this  raising  of  the  test  was  the  result  of 
the  system  of  examination  introduced  under  the  Act 
of  1826,  which  permitted  the  Directors  to  send  a  few 
nominees  to  India  direct,  without  passing  through 
Haileybury,  to  meet  the  great  demand  at  that  time 
for  additional  civil  servants.  It  is  at  any  rate  signifi- 
cant that  the  subjects  fixed  for  the  examination  for 
direct  appointments  were  the  very  subjects  chosen 
for  the  entrance  examination  to   Haileybury  in  and 

^  Boswoith  Smith,  "  Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  27. 


ENTRANCE  EXAMINATIONS  287 

after  1838.     These  subjects  are  stated  as  follows  in 
the  "  East  India  Register  and  Directory  "  :  — 

"  Each  candidate  shall  be  examined  in  the  Four  Gospels  of 
the  Greek  Testament,  and  shall  not  be  deemed  duly  quali- 
fied for  admission  to  Haileybury  College,  unless  he  be  found 
to  possess  a  competent  knowledge  thereof;  nor  unless  he  be 
able  to  render  into  English  some  portion  of  the  works  of  one 
of  the  following  Greek  authors  :  Homer,  Herodotus,  Xeno- 
phon,  Thucydides,  Sophocles,  and  Euripides ;  nor  unless 
he  can  render  into  English  some  portion  of  the  works  of 
one  of  the  following  Latin  authors :  Livy,  Terence,  Cicero, 
Tacitus,  Virgil,  and  Horace ;  and  this  part  of  the  examina- 
tion will  include  questions  in  ancient  history,  geography,  and 
philosophy.  Each  candidate  shall  also  be  examined  in 
modem  history  and  geography,  and  in  the  elements  of 
mathematical  science,  including  the  common  rules  of  arith- 
metic, vulgar  and  decimal  fractions,  and  the  first  four  books 
of  Euclid.  He  shall  also  be  examined  in  moral  philosophy, 
and  in  the  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion  as  set  forth 
in  the  works  of  Paley." 

The  entrance  examination  to  Haileybury  was  con- 
ducted in  these  subjects  and  upon  these  lines  until 
the  abolition  of  the  College.  It  was,  however,  held 
at  the  Indi^  House  in  London  by  an  independent 
board  of  examiners,  selected,  two  from  Oxford  and 
two  from  Cambridge,  Though  not  a  severe  test  for 
an  Oxford  undergraduate  of  a  year's  standing,  as 
described  in  Sir  M.  Monier-Williams's  reminiscences, 
it  yet  lasted  for  three  days,  and  included  subjects  not 
generally  included  in  the  university  studies  of  those 
times.      Sir  M,   Monier-Williams  himself   notes   his 


288  ENTRANCE  EXAMINATIONS 

failure  in  geography,  and  describes  how  he  had  to 
get  up  Paley's  works. ^  The  examination  was  quite 
hard  enough  to  need  special  preparation  for  a  man 
attempting  to  enter  very  young,  and  Sir  George 
Campbell  narrates  in  his- "  Memoirs"  that  he  was 
sent  to  a  special  tutor  for  a  year  to  prepare  for 
Haileybury.2  Mr.  Edward  Lockwood^  gives  an 
amusing  account  of  his  special  preparation  and  of 
his  examination  in  the  early  fifties.  His  school  days 
at  Marlborough  had  not  taught  him  much,  and  he 
describes  in  ludicrous  fashion  how  he  managed  to 
translate  the  passages  from  St.  Luke's  Gospel,  Vir- 
gil's "  First  Georgic,"  and  Homer's  "  Odyssey," 
which  were  set  to  him.  The  examination  must 
always  have  been  child's  play  to  the  more  mature 
students,  coming  straight,  as  most  of  them  did,  from 
the  sixth  form  of  a  great  English  public  school, 
but  in  the  words  of  Sir  George  Campbell :  "  The 
qualifying  examination  not  only  threw  out  a  few  of 
the  worst,  but  frightened  away  a  good  many  more. 
Directors  did  not  like  to  send  up  a  boy  likely  to 
fail."* 

In  addition  to  the  educational  test  for  entrance,  all 
nominees  for  the  East  India  Company's  Civil  Ser- 
vice had  to  appear,  after  1809,  before  a  committee 
cf  the  Directors,  known  as  the  College  Committee, 

*  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  40,  41. 

*  Campbell,  "  Memoirs,"  p.  7. 

*  Edward  Lockwood,  "  The  Early  Days  of  Marlborough  College," 
pp.  126-131. 

*  Campbell,  "  Memoirs,"  p.  8. 


COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY  289 

when  they  were  questioned  as  to  their  "  character, 
connections,  and  qualifications."  This  inspection  of 
candidates  was  to  enable  opinion  to  be  formed  from 
the  appearance  of  the  nominee  as  to  whether  he  was 
suited  for  Indian  life,  and,  above  all,  to  find  out,  if 
personally  unknown  to  members  of  the  committee, 
how  he  had  obtained  his  appointment,  and  whether 
he  would  do  credit  to  the  service.  It  was  only  after 
having  passed  through  both  these  ordeals  of  inspec- 
tion and  of  literary  examination  that  a  student  was 
admitted  to  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury. 

The  Course  of  Studies  at  Haileybury 

Lord  Wellesley,  in  his  Minute  with  regard  to  the 
establishment  of  the  College  of  Fort  William,  laid  it 
down  that  Indian  civil  servants  needed  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  general  principles  of  law  and  gov- 
ernment, and  a  good  grounding  in  liberal  studies,  as 
much  as  a  training  in  specifically  Oriental  subjects, 
such  as  the  languages  and  the  laws  of  India.  The 
Court  of  Directors,  when  they  founded  the  East 
India  College,  accepted  this  idea,  and  intended  that 
the  preliminary  training  of  their  servants  in  England 
should  be  mainly  in  the  liberal  studies,  with  only 
enough  of  Oriental  subjects  to  form  an  elementary 
basis  for  more  thorough  work  in  India.  In  the 
Prospectus  issued  upon  the  foundation  of  the  Col- 
lege, this  idea  was  clearly  enunciated.  The  greater 
part  of  the  education  to  be  given  was  to  be  in  the 


290  COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY 

liberal    studies,    and   the    Prospectus^   goes   on   to 
state :  — 

"  After  having  thus  provided  for  the  acquisition  of  Learn- 
ing in  general,  it  is  further  intended  to  furnish  them  with 
the  means  of  instruction  in  the  Elements  of  Oriental  Litera- 
ture. For  this  purpose  they  will  not  only  be  taught  the 
Rudiments  of  the  Asiatic  Languages,  more  especially  the 
Arabic  and  Persian;  but  be  made  acquainted  with  the  His- 
tory, Customs,  and  Manners  of  the  different  Nations  of  the 
East :  and  as  the  study  of  Law  and  Political  CEconomy  is  to 
form  an  essential  part  in  the  general  system  of  education,  it 
will  be  required  that,  in  the  Lectures  upon  these  subjects, 
particular  attention  be  given  to  the  explanation  of  the  Politi- 
cal and  Commercial  relations  subsisting  between  INDIA  and 
GREAT  BRITAIN.  Among  the  variety  of  studies  which 
may  be  pursued  with  peculiar  advantage  in  this  Country,  it 
is  not  to  be  expected  that  any  very  great  portion  of  their 
time  can  be  allotted  to  the  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the 
SEVERAL  Languages  of  the  East ;  but  it  is  presumed  that 
the  main  object  of  the  Institution  will  be  attained  if  the 
Students  be  well  grounded  in  the  Rudiments  of  the  TWO 
Languages  already  specified  ;  and  that,  on  their  leaving  the 
College,  such  instruction  be  given  them  as  may  enable 
them  to  prosecute  their  Oriental  studies  during  their  pas- 
sage to  India." 

In  pursuance  of  this  idea,  the  professors  upon  the 
original  faculty  were  chosen  mainly  to  teach  the  gen- 
eral subjects,  and  only  two  of  the  staff  were  attached 
to  the  Oriental  Department,  namely,  a  Professor  of 
the  Hindu  Literature  and  the  History  of  Asia,  and  a 

^  Reprinted  in  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  243- 
253. 


COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY  29 1 

Professor  of  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Hindustani.  It  is 
carefully  explained  in  the  Prospectus  that  the  teach- 
ing of  mathematics  was  to  be  made  subservient  to  the 
teaching  of  "the  four  branches  of  Natural  Philoso- 
phy, Mechanics,  Hydrostatics,  Optics  and  Astron- 
omy," and  that  some  elementary  instruction  was  to 
be  given  "in  Chemistry,  Mineralogy,  and  Natural 
History."  The  two  courses  of  lectures  on  classical 
and  general  literature  were  "  to  explain  the  Ancient 
Writers  of  Rome  and  Greece,  more  particularly  the 
Historians  and  Orators,"  and  "on  the  Arts  of  Rea- 
soning and  Composition."  "  Peculiar  care  will  be 
taken,"  it  is  stated,  "  to  make  the  Students  well  ac- 
quainted with  the  English  Language  and  with  the 
merits  of  its  most  approved  Writers;  they  will  be 
exercised  also  in  every  species  of  Composition  appro- 
priate to  their  future  occupations."  Finally,  courses 
were  to  be  given  on  general  history,  on  political  econ- 
omy, and  on  "  General  Polity,  the  Laws  of  England 
and  the  Principles  of  the  British  Constitution."^ 
Malthus  reveals  at  some  length,  in  his  pamphlet,  the 
actual  working  of  this  system  of  instruction  in  the 
early  days  of  the  East  India  College.  He  describes 
the  system  of  half-yearly  examinations,  which  were 
conducted  upon  the  plan  of  the  public  examinations 
at  Cambridge,  and  he  asserts  that  "four  or  five  of 
the  professors,  thoroughly  conversant  with  univer- 
sity examinations,  can  take  upon  themselves  to  affirm 
that  they  have  never  witnessed  a  greater  proportion 
1 "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  Cdllege,"  p.  248. 


292  COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY 

of  various  and  successful  exertion  in  the  course  of 
their  academical  experience  than  has  appeared  at 
some  of  the  examinations  at  the  East  India  College,"^ 
Malthus,  who  is  a  primary  authority  upon  the  early 
course  of  studies  and  its  results,  for  he  was  a  member 
of  the  original  faculty,  points  out  that  as  early  as 
1817,  in  which  year  his  pamphlet  appeared,  the  good 
effect  of  the  instruction  given  at  Haileybury  appeared 
in  the  annual  reports  of  the  College  of  Fort  William. 
He  gives  statistics  which  prove  that  the  elementary 
training  in  the  Oriental  languages  given  in  the  Ori- 
ental Department  enabled  the  students  from  Hert- 
ford and  Haileybury  to  pass  through  the  course  at 
Fort  William  in  a  few  months  instead  of  in  three  or 
four  years.  He  quotes  further  from  public  declara- 
tions of  Lord  Minto  and  of  Lord  Hastings,  successive 
Governors-General  of  India,  evidence  of  the  better 
intellectual  promise  of  the  students  who  joined  the 
Civil  Service  from  the  East  India  College.  Perhaps 
the  most  significant  of  these  declarations  is  the  pas- 
sage quoted  from  a  speech  delivered  by  Lord  Minto 
in  18 1 3,  in  which  the  Governor-General,  after  speak- 
ing of  the  very  slight  knowledge  of  the  Oriental  lan- 
guages acquired  at  Haileybury,  observed:  — 

"It  is  not  to  be  concluded  from  thence  that  the  time 
allotted  to  attendance  on  that  institution  has  been  unprofit- 
ably  spent,  because,  most  wisely,  in  my  opinion,  the  prelim- 
inary education  of  the  Company's  young  servants  is  not 
confined  to  studies  merely  Oriental ;  but,  together  with  the 

'    1  Malthus,  p.  50. 


COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY  293 

classical  instruction  of  the  West  (without  which  no  English 
gentleman  is  on  a  level  with  his  fellows),  I  understand  that 
a  foundation  of  pohte  literature  is  laid,  and  that  the  door  is 
opened  at  least,  and  the  pupil's  mind  attracted,  to  the  ele- 
ments of  useful  science,  the  seeds  of  which  being  sown,  a 
taste  for  intellectual  exercise  and  enjoyment  is  implanted 
which  seldom  fails  to  develop  and  mature  these  first  germs 
of  knowledge  at  the  appointed  season."^ 

During  Dr.  Batten's  long  administration,  the  gen- 
eral education  given  at  Haileybury  seems  to  have 
been  along  the  same  lines  as  had  been  indicated  upon 
the  foundation  of  the  College.  The  same  number 
of  professors  gave  instruction  in  classics  and  general 
literature,  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy,  his- 
tory and  political  economy,  and  general  polity  and 
the  laws  of  England.  But  the  work  done  certainly 
became  more  advanced,  as  the  students  became  more 
mature  in  age  of  entrance  and  better  qualified  by 
earlier  education.  In  the  Oriental  Department, 
however,  considerable  changes  took  place.  Separate 
professors  were  appointed  between  1825  and  1827  in 
Arabic  and  Persian ;  in  Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  Tel- 
ugu;  and  in  Hindi,  Hindustani,  and  Marathi.  This 
change  indicated  a  recognition  of  the  advantage  of 
giving  elementary  instruction  at  Haileybury  in  the 
vernacular  languages  of  India.  The  classical  lan- 
guages, Arabic,  Persian,  and  Sanskrit  were  not  for- 
gotten, but  the  introduction  into  the  course  of  studies 
of   Bengali,   Hindi,  Telugu,  and   Marathi  showed  a 

^  Malthus,  pp.  61,  62. 


294  COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY 

sense  of  the  practical  value  of  giving  a  preliminary 
acquaintance  with  the  leading  spoken  languages  of 
Bengal,  the  North-western  Provinces,  Madras,  and 
Bombay.  After  this  increase  of  attention  to  Oriental 
languages,  the  professorship  of  Hindu  literature  and 
the  history  of  Asia  was  allowed  to  lapse  in  1837. 
Dr.  Batten  himself  after  his  election  to  the  principal- 
ship  used  to  deliver  lectures  on  Divinity  to  the  senior 
students,  and  to  takfe  some  part  in  the  instruction  in 
classics. 

There  is  no  account  extant  of  the  actual  fashion 
of  instruction  during  Dr.  Batten's  administration, 
but  Sir  M.  Monier-Williams  has  written  a  most  inter- 
esting description,  not  only  of  the  methods  of  teach- 
ing and  the  lecture-room  habits  of  the  individual 
professors,  but  also  of  the  way  in  which  work  was 
done  by  the  students  under  Le  Bas,  in  1839.^  Daily 
lectures  were  delivered  by  the  professors  from  10 
A.M.  to  I  P.M. ;  Mondays  and  Tuesdays  were  set 
apart  for  classics  and  mathematics ;  Wednesdays  and 
Thursdays,  for  law,  political  economy,  and  history ; 
Fridays  and  Saturdays,  for  Oriental  languages.  "The 
mental  training,"  says  Sir  M.  Monier-Williams, 
"which  I  gained  at  old  Haileybury  was  so  varied 
and  excellent  that  nothing  at  all  equal  to  it  —  at  any 
rate  in  the  diversity  of  subjects  which  it  embraced  — 
was  to  be  had  either  at  the  Universities  or  elsewhere. 
...  I  soon  discovered  that  if  I  wished  to  rise  above 
the   level   of   the  average  student,  I  should  have  a 

1  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  66-76. 


COURSE  OF  STUDIES  AT  HAILEYBURY    295 

task  before  me  compared  with  which  my  previous 
work  at  Oxford  could  only  be  regarded  as  child's 
play."  ^  This  can  well  be  believed  when  it  is  remem- 
bered that  the  better-understood  advantages  of  a 
career  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service  diverted  from  the 
Universities,  by  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
many  of  the  best  students  from  the  great  English 
public  schools.  Sir  George  Campbell  notes  that  in 
his  term  there  were  at  H  alley  bury  two  men,  who 
had  been  head  boys  at  Eton  and  Rugby  respectively, 
R.  N.  Cust  and  W.  S.  Seton-Karr.  Furthermore, 
the  familiarity,  both  with  the  classics  and  with  Eng- 
lish literature,  shown  in  the  pages  of  the  student 
periodical  at  this  time,  The  Haileybury  Observer,  is 
remarkable.  With  such  material  as  this,  no  wonder 
need  be  expressed  at  Sir  M.  Monier- Williams's  high 
opinion  of  the  Haileybury  course  of  studies,  and  of 
the  excellence  of  the  work  done  there. 

It  should  be  added  that  the  standard  of  examina- 
tion became  steadily  higher  as  the  College  grew,  and 
that  the  final  test  became,  by  all  accounts,  a  really 
serious  matter  in  the  latter  years  of  Melvill's  admin- 
istration. It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  however,  that 
all  the  students  in  the  College  did  not  possess  the 
intellectual  caliber  of  the  men  whose  names  have 
been  mentioned.  There  was  plenty  of  incentive  for 
clever  and  industrious  students  in  the  valuable  prizes 
offered  for  proficiency  in  the  term  and  at  the  final 
examinations.  But  the  rank  and  file  did  not,  at 
*  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  75,  76. 


296  DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY 

Haileybury  more  that  at  any  other  college  before 
or  since,  hurt  their  health  by  hard  work.  The  knowl- 
edge that  their  appointments  to  India  were  secure, 
as  long  as  they  just  managed  to  pass  their  examina- 
tions, prevented  the  majority  of  Haileybury  students 
from  exerting  any  great  energy  in  their  studies. 
The  fact  that  Indian  civilians  were  ranked  in  the 
Service  in  the  order  in  which  they  passed  out  of 
College  at  their  final  examinations  only  affected  those 
few  who  realized  the  advantage  of  subsequent  senior- 
ity in  obtaining  furlough  from  India.  The  penalty 
of  losing  a  term,  or  a  few  places  in  rank,  did  not 
seem  great  to  the  average  young  man ;  and  it  was 
well  known  that  the  professors  and,  in  Melvill's 
time,  that  the  Principal,  would  hesitate  before  finally 
rejecting  the  nominee  of  an  influential  Director,  or, 
to  put  the  matter  in  a  kindlier  way,  before  actually 
depriving  a  young  man,  who  might  have  been  merely 
careless  or  idle,  of  a  valuable  appointment  and  a 
comfortable  provision  for  life. 

Discipline  at  Haileybury 

Whatever  may  have  been  the  excellences  of  Hai- 
leybury as  an  educational  institution,  and  it  has  been 
shown  that  it  improved  steadily  from  the  time  whe»> 
it  took  rank  as  a  college  instead  of  as  a  school,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was,  throughout  its  existence, 
severely  criticised  for  the  failure  of  the  authorities  to 
maintain  good  discipline.  The  rare  use  of  the  pun- 
ishment of  expulsion  not  only  allowed  men  to  pass 


DISCIPLINE  AT   HAILEYBURY  297 

out  of  the  College  with  a  minimum  of  intellectual 
exertion,  but  also  prevented  the  enforcement  of  strict 
discipline.  The  Court  of  Directors,  through  its  Col- 
lege Committee,  reserved  to  itself,  up  to  the  time  of 
Melvill's  appointment,  the  right  to  supervise  and  some- 
times to  modify  the  decisions  of  the  College  faculty. 
This  was  well  known  to  the  students,  and  relatives  of 
iniiuential  Directors  occasionally  took  unfair  advan- 
tage of  their  position.  The  root  of  the  evil,  however, 
lay  even  more  in  the  fact  that  the  tradition  of  early  dis- 
turbances had  fixed  in  the  public  mind  a  firmly  rooted 
idea  of  the  disorderliness  of  Haileybury  students. 
These  early  disturbances  occurred  duriuj^  the  weak 
administration  of  Dr.  Henley,  and  seem  to  have  been 
due  in  no  small  degree  to  the  disparity  of  age  among 
the  student  body,  and  to  the  mistaken  attempt  to  treat 
all  the  students  according  to  school  methods. 

Malthus  ^  describes  at  length  in  his  pamphlet  the 
inherent  difficulties  in  maintaining  order  during  the 
first  period  of  the  East  India  College.  He  points 
out  that,  since  some  students  were  admitted  at  eighteen 
or  nineteen  and  others  at  fifteen  or  sixteen,  for  a  two 
years'  course  of  residence,  it  was  not  possible  to  sepa- 
rate the  senior  from  the  junior  class,  and  to  make 
effective  use  of  the  former  for  the  maintenance  of 
good  order.  He  next  remarks  that  some  of  the  stu- 
dents did  not  want  to  go  to  India,  but  had  been  sent  to 
the  College  against  their  own  will,  so  that  they  felt 
that  their  only  chance  of  avoiding  the  hated  exile  was 

1  Malthus,  pp.  65-81, 


398  DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY 

to  get  themselves  expelled.  He  dwells  at  greatest 
length  on  the  third  difficulty,  the  unwillingness  of 
the  Directors  to  confirm  sentences  of  expulsion,  and 
insists  upon  the  bad  effect  of  the  restoration  to  the 
Civil  Service,  by  the  Court  of  Directors,  of  five  stu- 
dents who  had  been  expelled  for  taking  part  in  the  riot 
of  181 1.  However  serious  these  difficulties  may  have 
been,  the  ultimate  blame  must  rest  upon  the  ineffi- 
ciency of  the  first  Principal  and  the  permission  of  the 
growth  of  a  tradition  of  disorder.  "When,"  says 
Malthus,  "  a  spirit  of  insubordination  and  resistance 
to  discipline  has  once  deeply  infected  any  collected 
body  of  persons,  it  is  well  known  how  strong  a  ten- 
dency it  has  to  keep  itself  up  ;  how  easy,  and  almost 
certainly,  the  contagion  spreads  to  fresh  comers  ;  and 
how  extremely  difficult  it  is  effectually  to  eradicate 
it"  1 

Public  animadversion  was  no  less  than  three  times 
drawn  to  the  lack  of  discipline  at  the  East  India  Col- 
lege during  the  nine  years  of  Dr.  Henley's  administra- 
tion, and  an  opinion  was  created  in  the  public  mind, 
which  has  never  been  wholly  dissipated,  that  Hailey- 
bury  was  a  regular  hotbed  of  riot  and  disorder.  Of 
the  three  disturbances,  the  one  which  made  the  most 
impression  was  the  riot  of  181 1.  This  disturbance 
seems  to  have  been  in  itself  no  worse  than  a  noisy 
demonstration  on  the  part  of  the  students  lasting 
some  two  or  three  hours  of  a  November  night.  The 
young  men,  or  perhaps,  considering  the  date  at  which 
1  Malthus,  p.  73. 


DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY  299 

it  occurred,  the  boys,  made  a  demonstration  in  the 
Quadrangle,  blowing  horns,  firing  off  pistols,  and 
breaking  windows.  "  Not  a  single  professor  came 
forward  to  express  disapprobation ;  —  no  attempt  was 
made  to  reestablish  authority.  The  disorder  remained 
entirely  unopposed,  and  the  promoters  of  it  unde- 
tected, till  at  length  tired  nature  effected  that  which 
the  reigning  powers  did  not  attempt,  and  the  students 
retired  to  rest  soon  after  midnight."  ^  The  conduct 
of  the  Directors,  first,  in  making  a  great  parade  of 
severity  by  expelling  the  ringleaders,  and  then  in 
reinstating  them  in  the  Service,  attracted  a  good  deal 
of  attention  and  criticism ;  and  it  was  this  affair  which 
drew  forth  the  pamphlet  by  Malthus,  which  has  been 
so  often  cited.  One  of  the  students  expelled  was 
John  Hadley  D'Oyly,  a  ward  of  the  famous  Warren 
Hastings,  and  Hastings'  influence  was  invoked  on  his 
behalf.  The  young  man,  who  was  only  just  seven- 
teen, was  restored  to  the  Civil  Service,  and  Hastings' 
letters  upon  the  subject  and  his  advice  to  his  ward 
upon  the  matter  have  been  printed  by  Sir  Charles 
Lawson.^  What  perhaps  brings  out  most  clearly  the 
boyishness  of  the  whole  escapade  is  the  fact  that 
Malthus  had,  in  his  pamphlet,  to  oppose  the  introduc- 
tion of  corporal  punishment  into  the  College,  which 
had  been  suggested  as  a  result  of  it  in  an  open 
meeting  of  the  stockholders  by  a  Mr.  Jackson. 

^  Extract  from  a  contemporary  pamphlet,  reprinted  in  "  Memorials 
of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  233. 

2  Lawson,  "  Private  Life  of  Warren  Hastings,"  pp.  21 1-214. 


300  DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY 

After  the  time  of  Dr.  Henley,  disturbances  in  the 
College  became  less  frequent,  and  in  both  the  in- 
stances recorded  there  is  exhibited  rather  the  noisy 
behaviour  of  college  students  than  anything  deserving 
of  more  serious  notice.  The  so-called  riot  of  1822 
seems  to  have  been  due  to  the  objection  of  the  stu- 
dents to  the  closing  of  the  great  gate  of  the  College 
Quadrangle  at  too  early  an  hour.  The  gate  was 
blown  open  with  gunpowder,  and,  at  about  midnight, 
the  students  sallied  forth  and  broke  the  windows  of 
the  houses  of  a  certain  unpopular  professor  and  of  the 
Dean,  Mr.  Le  Bas.^  This  disturbance  led  to  a  motion 
at  a  meeting  of  the  stockholders  "that  Haileybury 
College  should  be  abolished."  The  motion  was  lost, 
and  Mr.  Robert  Grant,  afterwards  Governor  of  Bom- 
bay, in  opposing  it,  contended  that  the  discipline 
enforced  at  Haileybury  was  far  too  strict  and  much 
more  severe  than  that  in  vogue  at  the  Universities. 
It  seems  like  a  long  way  from  the  advocacy  of  flog- 
ging ten  years  before,  and  it  shows  how  thoroughly 
Haileybury  in  Batten's  time  had  become  of  college 
instead  of  school  grade,  that  Mr.  Grant  should  com- 
pare the  restrictions  at  Haileybury  with  those  at 
Oxford.  He  pointed  out  that  at  Haileybury  the 
students  had  to  attend  chapel  every  morning  and 
evening,  to  dine  in  hall  every  day,  to  be  within  gates 
every  evening  soon  after  dusk,  while  the  use  of  wine, 
riding  on  horseback,  driving,  hunting,  and  shooting 
were   all   forbidden.      And    these   restrictions   were 

1 "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  234. 


DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY  30I 

imposed  in  the  days  when  both  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge undergraduates  revelled  in  town  and  gown 
rows,  and  were  notoriously  given  to  hard  drinking. 

The  last  disturbance,  which  is  mainly  remarkable 
in  the  history  of  Haileybury  because  it  led  to  the 
resignation  of  Principal  Le  Bas,  took  place  in  1843. 
The  students  went  down  to  Ware,  two  miles  from 
the  College,  to  present  an  address  to  the  young 
Queen  Victoria,  who  had  consented  to  receive  it, 
while  upon  a  royal  progress  to  Cambridge.  The 
ceremony  only  lasted  a  few  moments,  and  the  young 
men  celebrated  the  occasion  with  a  big  dinner  at 
Ware.  On  returning  to  the  College,  they  indulged 
in  a  little  horse-play  and  broke  the  windows  of  the 
Dean,  Mr.  Jeremie.^  The  Dean  was  foolish  enough 
to  make  a  personal  matter  of  this,  and  insisted  on 
punishment.  The  Directors,  however,  intervened, 
and  stopped  all  further  proceedings.  Mr.  Le  Bas 
resigned,  and,  as  has  already  been  stated,  Melvill 
was  given  the  appointment  of  Principal,  to  the  great 
chagrin  of  Mr.  Jeremie. 

The  actual  administration  of  discipline  was  in  the 
6arly  years  intrusted  to  the  College  Council,  which 
consisted  of  the  Principal  and  the  whole  body  of 
professors,  under  the  supervision,  and  constant  inter- 
ference up  to  1833,  of  the  College  Committee  of  the 

*  This  is  Professor  Heaviside's  account  of  the  affair  ("  Memorials 
of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  106) ;  but  Sir  Steuart  Bayley  (p.  286) 
says  the  disturbance  was  caused  by  the  Queen's  driving  by  without 
taking  any  notice  of  the  students,  who  blamed  her  neglect  on  the  college 
authorities. 


302  DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY 

Court  of  Directors.  In  1838  the  College  Council  was 
limited  to  the  Principal,  the  Dean,  and  two  senior 
professors.  This  restricted  body  was  much  less 
efficient  than  the  earlier  College  Council  in  which 
Batten  exercised  an  increasing  and  controlling  in- 
fluence. The  friction  between  the  College  Council 
and  the  students  in  the  time  of  Le  Bas  led  to  a 
radical  change  in  1843,  when  Melvill  was  appointed 
Principal  with  full  power  in  all  matters  of  discipline, 
without  sharing  it  with  the  professors  and  without 
interference  from  the  Court  of  Directors.  The  pun- 
ishments inflicted  for  breaches  of  discipline  were  the 
same  as  those  in  use  at  the  English  Universities. 
Fines,  and  "gating,"  as  confinement  to  the  Quad- 
rangle was  called,  were  employed  as  lesser  penalties ; 
more  serious  was  "rustication,"  or  suspension  from 
the  College  for  one  or  two  terms;  most  serious  of 
all  was  expulsion.  The  last  of  these  punishments 
was,  for  reasons  already  explained,  rarely  imposed. 
Rustication,  however,  was  more  common,  and  its 
effect  was  to  lower  the  student's  rank  in  the  Civil 
Service,  deferring  his  taking  up  his  appointment  in 
India,  and  thus  ranking  him  below  his  former  class- 
mates in  obtaining  furlough  to  England  and  his 
retiring  pension.  Sir  M.  Monier-Williams  concludes 
his  treatment  of  this  subject  by  saying  :  "  I  emphati- 
cally repeat  that,  to  the  best  of  my  knowledge  and 
experience,  the  discipline  of  the  East  India  College 
was  in  my  time  carried  out  by  the  authorities,  through 
good  report  and  evil  report,  and  often  in  the  teeth 


DISCIPLINE  AT  HAILEYBURY  303 

of  unusual  hindrances  and  difficulties,  with  an  amount 
of  wisdom,  tact,  and  success  which  still  excites  my 
wonder,  whenever  I  look  back  upon  it."  * 

It  has  been  thought  worth  while  to  go  into  this 
question  of  discipline  at  Haileybury  at  some  length, 
because  it  has  so  often  gone  on  record  that  the  old 
East  India  College  was  a  place  notorious  for  insubor- 
dination and  misconduct.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  it  did 
not  deserve  this  bad  reputation ;  the  pranks  of  stu- 
dents there  were  very  like  the  pranks  of  students 
elsewhere,  before  and  since ;  the  bad  name  it  got 
in  its  early  days  stuck  to  it ;  discussions  at  the  meet- 
ings of  the  stockholders  and  in  the  newspapers  made 
mountains  out  of  mole-hills ;  and  when  once  the 
students  began  to  be  treated  as  men  instead  of  boys, 
and  certain  tactless  officers  of  the  College  went  out 
of  office,  things  ran  as  smoothly  as  in  other  efficient 
places  of  higher  education. 

Haileybury  Students  who  did  not  enter  the  Civil 
Service  in  India 

It  has  already  been  said,  and  the  authority  of  Sir 
George  Campbell  has  been  quoted  in  support  of  the 
statement,  that  the  existence  of  the  qualifying  exami- 
nation for  entrance  to  Haileybury  did  much  to 
check  the  nomination  or  admission  to  the  College 
of  backward  and  unsuitable  students.  It  remains  to 
be  noted  how  such  students  were  treated  when  luck 

1"  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  88. 


304  HAILEYBURIANS  IN  THE  ARMY 

or  laxity  let  them  into  Haileybury.  "  A  considerable 
number,"  says  Sir  George  Campbell,  "were  sifted 
out  at  Haileybury.  It  would  have  been  difficult  to 
turn  them  adrift,  but  there  was  the  alternative  of  the 
Company's  Cavalry,  a  coveted  service.  The  fashion 
was  to  send  into  the  Cavalry  a  young  man  too  idle  or 
too  stupid  to  go  through  Haileybury,  and  the  Director 
put  another  in  his  place  in  the  Civil  Service."  ^ 

It  is  interesting,  in  the  light  of  this  statement,  to 
note  the  number  of  students  who  failed  to  get  through 
Haileybury,  but  received  commissions  in  the  Com- 
pany's army.  The  number  of  admissions  to  Hailey- 
bury in  the  fifty-two  years  of  its  existence  was  1985. 
Of  these,  1754,  or  slightly  over  88  per  cent,  entered 
the  Civil  Service  in  India.  Eighty,  or  nearly  4  per 
cent,  entered  the  Company's  army.  Some  of  these 
Haileybury  failures  attained  distinction  in  the  military 
profession.  Two,  General  Sir  Hugh  Henry  Gough, 
G.C.B.,  and  Major-General  Arthur  Thomas  Moore, 
C.B.,  attained  the  supreme  distinction  of  an  English 
soldier's  career  in  winning  the  Victoria  Cross.  Several 
of  them  rose  to  high  rank  and  showed  that  their 
failure  at  Haileybury  was  due  rather  to  a  mistaken 
choice  of  profession  than  to  lack  of  parts. 

Over  7  per  cent  of  the  students,  that  is,  151, 
admitted  to  Haileybury,  neither  proceeded  to  join 
the  Civil  Service  in  India  nor  accepted  commissions 
in  the  Indian  army.  Five  of  these  died  before 
joining  the  Service,  one  entered  the  English  army, 

1  Campbell,  "  Memoirs,"  p.  8. 


HAILEYBURIANS   IN  OTHER  CAREERS  305 

and  many  of  the  remainder,  of  whom  there  is  no 
further  record,  were  undoubtedly  dropped  for  failure 
in  their  studies  or  were  expelled  for  other  reasons. 
Some  of  this  residue,  however,  abandoned  their 
Indian  prospects  for  other  professions  in  which  they 
made  a  distinct  success.  Among  these  may  be  noted 
the  Right  Honourable  Charles  Pelham  Villiers,  the 
great  free-trade  statesman  and  friend  of  Cobden,  who 
was  at  Haileybury  from  18 18  to  1820,  and  gave  up 
his  Indian  appointment  to  enter  the  House  of  Com- 
mons ;  Charles  Merivale,  the  historian  of  the  Romans 
under  the  Empire,  who  was  at  Haileybury  in  1825 
and  1826,  and  afterward  took  orders  in  the  Church 
of  England  and  became  Dean  of  Ely  Cathedral ; 
W.  D.  Christie,  the  biographer  of  the  first  Lord 
Shaftesbury,  who  was  at  Haileybury  in  1835,  and, 
after  a  short  period  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
entered  the  diplomatic  service;  Sir  Monier  Monier- 
Williams,  who  returned  to  Oxford  after  passing 
through  Haileybury  in  1840  and  1841,  and,  after 
acting  as  the  last  Professor  of  Sanskrit  at  Hailey- 
bury, was  for  nearly  forty  years  the  Boden  Professor 
of  Sanskrit  at  Oxford ;  Vernon  Lushington,  who  was 
at  Haileybury  in  1850  and  185 1,  and  became  a  suc- 
cessful lawyer.  Secretary  to  the  Admiralty,  and  a 
county  court  judge;  and  finally  Mr.  Val  Prinsep,  R.A., 
who  was  at  Haileybury  in  1855  and  1856,  and  after- 
ward became  a  distinguished  painter  and  author. 


306  LIFE  AT  HAILEYBURY 

The  Intellectual  Side  of  Life  at  Haileybury 

Every  one  who  has  gone  through  college  is  aware 
that  the  most  abiding  influences  are  not  always  those 
resulting  from  the  course  of  studies.  Intellectual 
growth  is  not  alone  fostered  in  the  class-room,  and  the 
leading  men  in  the  intellectual  life  of  the  college  are 
often  not  the  most  successful  students  in  passing 
examinations.  This  was  certainly  the  case  at  Hailey- 
bury. Some  idea  has  been  given  of  the  methods  of 
instruction,  and  undoubtedly  an  intellectual  stimulus 
was  given  to  certain  students  by  some  of  the  pro- 
fessors. Men  with  a  turn  for  language,  like  Monier- 
Williams,  John  Muir,  and  Robert  Needham  Cust, 
were  started  at  Haileybury  on  the  lines  of  philological 
research  which  have  given  them  permanent  fame. 
But  graceful  writers,  like  Alfred  Lyall,  the  poet 
and  essayist,  and  H.  G.  Keene,  the  historian,  did 
not  shine  as  winners  of  college  prizes,  and  showed 
their  talents  more  naturally  as  contributors  to  The 
Haileybury  Observer, 

No  portion  of  the  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury 
College  "  is  more  interesting  than  the  section  by  Sir 
Steuart  Bayley  on  the  college  literature.  The  students 
of  Haileybury  published  various  college  periodicals 
from  1820  to  1822,  but  their  most  representative  pub- 
lication was  the  The  Haileybury  Observer,  which  ran 
from  1839  to  the  dissolution  of  the  College  in  1857.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  periodical  literature,  during 
the  lifetime  of  Haileybury,  was  more  literature  and  less 


LIFE  AT  HAILEYBURY  307 

newspaper  than  it  has  since  become,  and  The  Hailey- 
bttry  Observer  abounds  not  only  in  typical  college 
poetry,  the  wit  of  which  lies  in  happy  local  allusions, 
but  also  in  essays  of  considerable  merit  on  literary  and 
mainly  on  classical  subjects.  It  is  interesting  to  note 
how  many  of  the  men,  who,  since  their  H  alley  bury 
days,  have  made  reputations  as  writers,  appear  among 
the  editors  of  The  Haileybury  Observer  and  among  its 
contributors.  The  list  contains  not  only  Cust  and 
Monier-Williams,  Lyall  and  Keene,  but  also  E.  C. 
Bayley,  the  historian  of  Gujarat ;  J.  W.  Sherer,  the 
novelist ;  W.  S.  Seton-Karr,  the  editor  of  "  Selections 
from  the  Calcutta  Gazettes,"  and  the  author  of  a  "  Life 
of  Cornwallis " ;  and  Val  Prinsep,  the  author  of 
"  Imperial  India."  Perhaps  the  cleverest  of  all  the 
contributions  to  The  Haileybury  Observer  was  a 
parody  on  Goldsmith's  "  Deserted  Village,"  with  the 
title  of  "The  Deserted  College,"  which  appeared  in 
one  of  the  latest  numbers  and  was  written  by  that 
well-known  Indian  statesman,  Auckland  Colvin. 

But  its  college  literature  was  not  the  only  evidence 
of  intellectual  life  among  the  students  at  Haileybury. 
From  18 1 5  there  existed,  with  occasional  lapses,  a 
Haileybury  College  Debating  Society  in  which  many 
prominent  speakers  of  after  time  made  their  d6but. 
It  was  probably  neither  better  nor  worse  than  the 
average  college  debating  society,  which  it  resembled 
in  its  rules,  practices,  and  subjects  for  debate.  There 
was  also  the  Wellesley  Club,  which  later  became  the 
Wellesley  Whist  Club,  and  which  seems  to  have  been 


308  LIFE  AT   HAILEYBURY 

rather  convivial  than  intellectual,  and  to  have  boasted 
of  its  "  chartered  toast "  and  of  its  own  special  song 
in  honor  of  the  great  Governor-General  of  India. 

The  intellectual  side  of  Haileybury  life  can,  how- 
ever, best  be  judged  from  the  letters,  reminiscences, 
and  memoirs  of  famous  Haileybury  men  referred  to 
in  a  later  paragraph.  It  may  be  that  the  Competi- 
tion Wallahs,  who  succeeded  them,  have,  as  a  body, 
more  literary  aptitude,  but  they  certainly  have  not 
yet  produced  a  poet  or  an  essayist  who  can  rank  with 
the  most  distinguished  Haileybury  man  of  letters, 
Sir  Alfred  Lyall. 

Social  Side  of  Life  at  Haileybury 

But  even  more  space  is  filled  in  the  recollection 
and  memory  of  all  graduates  of  Haileybury  by  the 
social  advantages  afforded  by  their  college  life.  The 
one  thing  in  which  the  Haileybury  system  had  an 
indisputable  advantage  over  that  which  followed  it 
was  in  the  spirit  of  camaraderie  which  it  fostered. 
It  was  true  that  many  of  the  young  men  there  were, 
as  scions  of  great  Anglo-Indian  families,  already 
related  to,  or  acquainted  with,  each  other.  But  they 
seem  to  have  admitted  readily  into  their  friendship 
the  men  of  slighter  connections,  who  were  being  edu- 
cated with  them.  Having  common  prospects  and  a 
career  to  be  passed  together  in  a  distant  land,  still 
unconnected  with  the  mother  country  by  telegraph, 
and  many  months'  journey  away,  it  was  natural  that 
they  should  seek  to  know  each  other  well.     The  iso- 


LIFE  AT   HAILEYBURY  309 

lation  of  Haileybury,  standing  by  itself  on  Hertford 
Heath,  afforded  the  opportunity,  and  many  lifelong 
friendships  were  formed  there.  For  social  life  the 
students  had  to  depend  upon  themselves  and  upon 
the  families  of  the  faculty.  The  distinction,  in  the 
world,  of  some  of  the  latter  brought  many  visitors  of 
national  renown  to  Haileybury,  and  interesting  oppor- 
tunities for  meeting  famous  persons  were  thus  afforded 
to  the  students. 

After  all,  as  was  natural  with  young  men  and  with 
young  EngUshmen,  the  greatest  opportunities  for 
personal  acquaintance  and  personal  rivalry  arose  in 
connection  with  athletics.  The  Haileybury  Cricket 
Club  had  a  long  and  prosperous  history.^  Rowing 
on  the  river  Lea  was  another  favorite  sport,  and  class 
races  were  instituted  between  the  different  "terms." 
Class  contests  at  football  were  vigorously  fought  out.^ 
Mr.  Lockwood  has  written  an  amusing  account  of  an 
athletic  meet.^  Driving,  though  not  permitted  by  the 
early  rules  of  the  College,  and  driving  tandem,  at  all 
times  prohibited,  were  practised ;  and  it  is  on  record 
that  John  Lawrence's  favorite  sport,  as  a  college  stu- 
dent, was  playing  skittles  at  the  neighbouring  tavern, 
the  College  Arms.  Since  most  of  the  Haileybury  stu- 
dents in  its  most  prosperous  days  came  from  the  great 
English  public  schools,  they  had  already  attained  to 
some  degree  of  proficiency  in  athletics,  and  it  was  less 

1  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  77,  78. 

2  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  in  "  Life  of  Lord  Lawrence,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  31. 
'  Lockwood,  "  Early  Days  of  Marlborough  College,"  pp.  87-89. 


310  UFE   AT   HAILEYBURY 

difficult  to  get  up  a  good  crew  or  athletic  team  of  any 
sort  than  might  have  been  expected  in  a  college 
where  only  two  years'  residence  was  required.  It  is 
curious  to  observe  that  the  periodicals  published 
by  the  students  of  the  College  contained  but  little 
notice  of  athletic  contests,  and  in  this  Haileybury 
publications  differed  from  those  produced  in  modern 
schools  and  colleges. 

Of  course,  there  was  the  reverse  side  to  the  healthy 
social  life  of  daily  intercourse  and  athletic  rivalry. 
There  are  always  black  sheep  in  every  educational 
institution,  and  Haileybury  was  no  exception  to  the 
rule.  Sir  M.  Monier- Williams  dwells  on  the  ten- 
dency to  the  use  of  profane  language,  which,  he 
declares,  was  far  more  prevalent  at  Haileybury 
than  at  Oxford  in  his  time ;  and,  despite  the  strict- 
ness of  the  College  rules  forbidding  wine,  there  was, 
at  certain  periods,  in  certain  sets,  a  good  deal  of 
hard  drinking.  Glimpses  of  a  conviviality  which 
sometimes  degenerated  into  drunkenness  can  be  seen 
in  the  College  publications,  and  traditions  of  occa- 
sional fast  men  and  fast  sets  have  continued  for 
years  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Haileybury,  and  can 
occasionally  be  heard  from  the  lips  of  surviving 
Haileybury  men,  but  anything  like  the  open  prac- 
tice of  vice  was  unknown. 

The  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company  did 
their  best  to  provide  the  students  with  the  best  reli- 
gious instruction :  morning  and  evening  services  were 
held  in  the  College  chapel ;  Batten  and  Jeremie  and 


LIFE  AT  HAILEYBURY  311 

Melvill  were  often  heard  in  the  College  pulpit ;  every 
possible  encouragement  was  given  to  the  formation 
of  good  habits,  and  the  interest  taken,  by  some  of 
the  professors  at  least,  in  the  moral  life  of  the  stu- 
dents was  real  and  sincere.  The  organization  of 
Haileybury  life  was  on  the  plan  of  English  college 
life  as  it  existed  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge.  The 
students  wore  caps  and  gowns  to  lecture  and  on 
public  occasions.  They  breakfasted  in  their  own 
rooms,  but  dined  together  in  the  College  Hall  in  the 
evening.  The  professors  dined  with  them  at  the 
high  table  on  a  raised  dais,  and  afterward  retired 
to  take  their  wine  in  the  Common  Room.  Although 
the  great  gate  was  closed  at  an  earlier  hour  than  in 
the  Universities,  and  an  attempt  was  made  to  see 
that  the  students  were  alone  and  in  bed  by  midnight,- 
these  seem  to  have  been  the  only  points  in  which,  in 
its  latter  days,  Haileybury  was  more  strict  than  an 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  college.  The  way  in  which 
the  various  staircases  communicating  with  the  men's 
rooms  opened  on  the  great, Quadrangle  made  occa- 
sional midnight  frolics  inevitable,  and  some  of  these 
frolics,  as  has  already  been  noted,  were  elevated  by 
injudicious  treatment  into  the  dignity  of  riots. 

As  usual,  with  so  many  young  men  quartered 
together,  one  of  the  great  amusements  was  the  play- 
ing of  practical  jokes  upon  the  professors  and  upon 
each  other.  Some  of  these  are  described  in  Sir  M. 
Monier-Williams's  reminiscences  and  in  The  Hailey- 
bury Observer,  but  one  that  has  not  yet  appeared  in 


312        NUMBER  OF  STUDENTS   AT   HAILEYBURY 

print  may  be  recorded  here.  A  certain  student,  who 
afterward  had  a  successful  career  in  India,  and 
rose  to  be  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Bengal,  was  con- 
sidered by  his  fellows  to  be  unduly  vain  of  his  per- 
sonal appearance,  and  it  was  asserted  that  he  was 
in  the  habit  of  putting  his  hair,  which  was  of  an 
unpopular  shade,  into  curl  papers  when  he  retired 
at  night.  The  students  resolved  to  test  the  truth 
of  this  assertion.  In  silence  a  crowd  collected  in 
front  of  the  suspect's  window.  At  the  given  moment 
he  was  aroused  by  a  sudden  cry  of  fire,  and  when  he 
thrust  his  head  out  of  the  window  it  was  perceived 
to  bear,  either  as  its  ordinary  custom  was,  or,  as  the 
victim  asserted,  forcibly  so  decorated,  the  despised 
adornments. 

The  Number  of  Students  at  Haileybury 

The  number  of  students  at  the  East  India  College 
varied  at  different  times.  It  would  not  be  fair  to 
strike  an  average  for  the  whole  existence  of  the  Col- 
lege on  account  of  the -greatness  of  this  variation, 
even  if  the  data  were  available.  But  the  follow- 
ing figures  may  be  of  some  interest.  During  Dr. 
Henley's  administration,  the  first  nine  years  of  the 
College,  the  average  number  of  students  according 
to  the  statistics  of  the  entering  classes,  in  residence 
during  any  one  term,  seems  to  have  been  about  seventy- 
five.  During  the  twenty-two  years  of  Dr.  Batten's 
administration,  from  1815  to  1837,  the  average  num- 
ber in  residence,  calculated  on  the  same  basis,  —  the 


NUMBER  OF  STUDENTS  AT  HAILEYBURY        313 

size  of  the  entering  classes, — was  about  eighty. 
For  the  latter  part  of  this  period,  however,  more 
accurate  figures  can  be  given  from  an  examination 
of  "The  East  India  Registers"  from  1826  to  1837, 
which  contain  lists  of  the  students  at  the  College. 
From  these  lists  it  appears  that  the  high-water  mark, 
in  point  of  numbers,  was  reached  in  the  first  term  of 
1830,  when  107  students  were  in  residence,  while  loi 
names  appear  in  1829,  and  99  in  1826  and  in  the 
second  term  of  1830.  On  the  other  hand,  a  great 
falling  off  in  numbers  appears  toward  the  end  of  this 
period,  probably  owing  to  the  large  number  of  direct 
appointments  to  India,  so  that  the  year  1832  shows 
only  48,  and  the  year  1837  ^^^Y  27,  students  in  resi- 
dence. Under  Le  Bas,  from  1837  to  1843,  the  number 
again  rises  from  32  in  1837  ^^^  45  in  1838,  to  over  80 
in  the  latter  years.  During  the  last  period  of  the  life 
of  the  College,  under  Melvill,  an  average  of  80  stu- 
dents was  well  maintained,  the  variations  running  from 
62  in  185 1  and  66  in  1852,  to  91  in  both  1853  and 
1855,  and  92  in  1845. 

Reminiscences  and  Opinions  of  Haileybury,  by  Men 
who  were  trained  there 

The  best  idea  of  life  at  Haileybury,  of  the  benefits 
of  Haileybury  education,  and  of  the  influence  of 
Haileybury  in  forming  the  traditions  of  the  Indian 
Civil  Service,  can  be  found  in  the  reminiscences  and 
opinions  of  men  who  were  trained  there.  Space  does 
not  permit  the  citation  at  length  of  either  the  descrip- 


314  THE  DIRECTORS  AND   HAILEYBURY 

tive  passages  or  of  the  matured  opinions,  which  can 
be  collected  from  the  writings  of  civilians  trained  at 
Haileybury.  But  reference  should  be  made  to  the 
descriptions  written  by  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan  and 
Mr.  James  Hallett  Batten,  in  Bosworth  Smith's  "  Life 
of  Lord  Lawrence  " ;  ^  to  Sir  Bartle  Frere's  reminis- 
cences, printed  in  his  "Life  and  Correspondence"  by 
Mr.  John  Martineau ;  ^  to  the  appreciative  description 
written  by  Sir  George  Campbell  in  his  "  Memoirs  "  ;  ^ 
to  the  remarks  of  Sir  Richard  Temple  in  his  "  Men 
and  Events  of  my  Time  in  India";*  to  the  particu- 
larly vivid  reminiscences  of  Mr.  H.  G.  Keene,  who 
was  not  only  educated  but  born  at  Haileybury,  in  a 
review  of  the  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  Col- 
lege "  in  the  Calcutta  Review^  and  in  his  **  Recollec- 
tions of  an  Indian  Civilian,"  also  published  in  the 
Calcutta  Review;^  while  Mr,  Edward  Lockwood 
gives  a  picture  of  Haileybury  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  somewhat  fast  student  in  a  chapter  entitled 
"A  Glimpse  of  Old  Haileybury,"  which  forms  part 
of  his  volume  called  "The  Early  Days  of  Marl- 
borough College."  ^ 

The  Court  of  Directors  and  the  College 

The  interest  taken  by  the  Court  of  Directors  in  the 
East  India  College  was  from  the  first  very  great. 
There  had  been  considerable  opposition  among  the 

^Vol.  I.,  pp.  30-31.  *  Vol.  XCIX.,  pp.  xxxv.-xxxix.,  October,  1894. 

2  Vol.  I.,  pp.  8-10.  6  Vol.  CI.,  pp.  60-63,  July.  1895. 

'Vol.  I.,  pp.  8-10.  ■'pp.  151,  152. 
*  pp. 18-19. 


THE  DIRECTORS  AND  HAILEYBURY  315 

Stockholders  to  its  establishment,  which  found  vent 
in  severe  criticisms  and  in  resolutions  for  its  abolition ; 
there  was  always  a  considerable  minority  of  supporters 
of  the  College  among  the  stockholders  who  wanted 
it  to  be  run  as  a  school ;  and  there  were  a  certain 
number  of  strong  supporters  of  Lord  Wellesley,  who 
had  resented  the  cutting  down  of  his  magnificent 
scheme  of  a  great  college  at  Fort  William.  The 
most  usual  lines  of  criticism  were  on  the  grounds 
of  expense,  disorderly  conduct  of  the  students, 
underlaxity  or  overlaxity  in  its  management,  and  a 
wrong  system  of  instruction.  These  attacks  by  some 
of  the  stockholders  occurred  at  many  of  the  quar- 
terly meetings,  and  were  largely  responsible  for  the 
false  impressions  about  the  College  which  got  abroad 
among  the  public  at  large.  More  than  once,  notably 
in  1824,  motions  for  the  abolition  of  the  College  were 
hotly  debated,  but  they  were  always  lost  owing  to  the 
vigorous  opposition  of  the  Directors  themselves.  A 
careful  study  of  these  various  criticisms  and  of  the 
debates  in  the  India  House  shows  that,  underlying 
most  of  the  opposition,  was  a  feeling  among  the 
stockholders  that  the  Directors  supported  the  College 
in  their  own  interests,  and  that  its  continuance  was 
in  some  way  advantageous  to  them.  This,  however, 
becomes  less  obvious  after  the  renewal  of  the  Com- 
pany's Charter  in  1833,  when  the  composition  of  the 
stockholders  underwent  the  change  that  has  been 
noted  earlier.  A  remnant  of  this  spirit  may  be  seen, 
however,  even  up  to  the  last  days  of  the  Company's 


3l6  THE  DIRECTORS   AND   HAILEYBURY 

existence,  and  Haileybury  was  too  generally  regarded 
by  them  as  a  pet  institution  of  the  Directors,  in  no 
way  vital  to  the  prosperity  of  the  Company's  Civil  Ser- 
vice and  the  Company's  government  of  India.  When, 
therefore,  the  Directors'  patronage  to  the  Indian  Civil 
Service  was  taken  away  in  1853,  no  voice  was  raised 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  or  among  the  public,  to 
save  the  College,  which  was  regarded  as  bound  up  in 
some  way  with  the  Directors'  right  of  nomination. 

The  more  the  College  was  attacked  by  the  stock- 
holders, the  more  vigorous  was  the  support  given 
to  it  by  the  Directors  themselves.  They  watched 
over  it  with  paternal  solicitude,  in  fact,  with  too 
much  solicitude  for  its  own  good.  Until  the  appoint- 
ment of  Melvill  with  full  powers  they  insisted  upon 
acting  as  a  court  of  appeal  in  all  things,  and  in  inter- 
fering overmuch  in  details  of  •  administration.  From 
the  very  foundation  of  the  College,  membership  on 
the  College  Committee  of  the  Court  of  Directors  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  chief  distinctions.  In  18 13 
a  standing  College  Committee  was  one  of  the  twelve 
created,  and,  until  the  renewal  of  the  charter  in  1833, 
it  was  always  composed  of  the  nine  senior  Directors 
in  point  of  service,  with  the  chairman  and  deputy- 
chairman  of  the  Court.  This  committee  had  entire 
supervision  of  all  matters  connected  with  the  Col- 
lege ;  it  investigated  all  appeals  and  complaints  ;  it 
appointed  the  professors  and  assistants ;  and  it 
attended  in  a  body  at  the  College  itself  on  the  occa- 
sion of  the  semi-annual  visitations.    Its  clerk  through- 


THE  DIRECTORS  AND  HAILEYBURY  317 

out  its  existence  was  Mr.  John  Conyers  Hudson.  In 
1833  there  was  a  rearrangement  of  the  committees 
of  the  Court  of  Directors,  and  a  reduction  of  their 
number  from  twelve  to  three.  Of  these  three  the 
Finance  and  Home  Committee  took  charge  of  the 
affairs  of  Haileybury.  Their  representative  in  this 
branch  of  their  work  was  Mr.  William  T.  Hooper, 
whose  official  title  was  Clerk  of  the  College  Depart- 
ment. He  transacted  all  business  and  correspond- 
ence concerning  the  College,  and  always  accompanied 
the  Directors  upon  their  semi-annual  visitations.  His 
somewhat  peculiar  personality  was  well  known  to  all 
the  Haileybury  students  of  the  later  period,^  and  he 
continued  to  transact  the  business  of  the  College 
until  its  dissolution. 

Enough  has  been  said  of  the  baneful  effect  of  the 
interference  of  the  Directors  in  the  affairs  of  the 
College ;  the  good  side  of  their  interest  in  it  deserves 
a  few  words  of  comment.  The  company  was  always 
a  liberal  paymaster.  The  salaries  paid  to  the  prin- 
cipals and  professors  at  Haileybury  were  large ; 
they  were  provided  with  good  houses  and  spacious 
grounds;  their  expenses  were  light,  and  their  work 
not  excessive.  As  the  sketch  of  the  course  of  studies 
shows,  no  professor  lectured  on  more  than  two  days 
a  week,  and  in  the  nature  of  things  their  classes 
were  not  large.  As  a  result  of  this,  very  few  pro- 
fessors ever  resigned,  and,  when  retirement  became 
necessary  from  increasing  age  or   ill-health,  liberal 

1  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  pp.  40,  42,  54,  55,  132. 


3l8  THE  DIRECTORS  AND  HAILEYBURY 

pensions  were  always  granted.  It  was  this  generous 
treatment  which  enabled  the  Directors  to  obtain  such 
distinguished  men  as  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and  Sir 
James  Stephen  and  Malthus  and  Henry  Melvill  to 
fill  offices  at  Haileybury.  Constant  association  with 
the  Directors  made  it  easy  for  the  principals  and 
professors  to  obtain  nominations  to  the  Indian  Civil 
Service  for  their  sons.  Three  sons  of  Batten,  two 
of  Le  Bas,  and  three  of  Melvill  passed  out  of  Hailey- 
bury into  the  Civil  Service,  and  sons  of  Professors 
Christian,  Schalch,  and  Keene  all  had  opened  to 
them  the  same  career,  in  which  they  won  distinc- 
tion. 

The  chief  manifestation  of  the  interest  taken  by 
the  Directors  in  the  welfare  of  the  East  India  Col- 
lege was  shown  on  the  occasion  of  the  semi-annual 
visitations.  Twice  a  year,  at  the  end  of  the  College 
terms,  in  June  and  December,  the  chairman  of  the 
Court  of  Directors,  accompanied,  up  to  1833,  by  the 
members  of  the  College  Committee,  and  after  that 
year  by  as  many  Directors  as  chose  to  attend,  came 
down  in  state  from  London.  An  imposing  ceremony 
was  held  in  the  College  Library  or  Hall ;  medals  and 
prizes,  with  which  the  Directors  were  most  liberal, 
were  distributed ;  prize  compositions  were  read  by 
the  students,  of  which  the  EngHsh  essay,  being  in 
the  only  language  intelligible  to  most  of  the  guests, 
was  most  applauded ;  the  names  of  the  students  who 
had  successfully  passed  through  the  College  course, 
in  the  order  fixed  by  the  final  examinations,  were 


DIRECT  APPOINTMENTS  TO  INDIA  319 

read  aloud  in  sonorous  tones  by  the  Clerk  of  the 
College,  Mr.  Hooper;  their  appointment  to  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  was  solemnly  announced ;  and 
an  appropriate  discourse  was  generally  delivered  by 
the  chairman  of  the  Court  of  Directors.  This  cere- 
mony was  followed  by  a  great  dinner  to  the  Direc- 
tors and  their  guests  in  the  College  Hall,  at  which 
speeches  were  made  in  praise  of  the  Company  and 
of  the  College.  Many  accounts  of  these  ceremonial 
occasions,  which  were  known  among  the  students 
as  "  Di's  Days,"  are  still  extant.  Among  those 
described  in  the  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury 
College "  ^  the  most  interesting  seem  to  have  been 
the  last  two,  which  took  place  in  1857,  the  year  of 
the  Indian  Mutiny.  The  account  of  another,  which 
took  place  in  December,  1847,  is  quoted  at  length 
from  The  Hertford  Mercury  in  the  "  Autobiography 
and  Reminiscences  of  Sir  Douglas  Forsyth."  * 

Direct  Appointments    to    the   Indian    Civil   Service^ 
1827-1831 

By  the  Act  renewing  the  charter  in  181 3,  it  was 
enacted  that  no  nominee  of  the  Directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  should  enter  the  Indian  Civil  Service, 
without  passing  through  the  course  at  Haileybury. 
But  unforeseen  circumstances,  especially  the  growth 
of  the  Company's  territories  and  the  increase  of  the 
duties  of  its  civil  servants,  caused  a  dearth  of  quali- 
fied civilians  in  1826,  and  in  that  year  an  Act  was 
1  Pp.  129-139.  2  Pp.  5_3. 


320  DIRECT  APPOINTMENTS  TO   INDIA 

passed,  7  Geo.  IV.,  c.  56,  relaxing  the  stringency 
of  the  Act  of  18 1 3,  and  permitting  the  Directors,  for 
the  space  of  three  years,  to  nominate  and  to  send  to 
India  "any  person  who  shall  produce  such  testi- 
monials of  his  character  and  conduct  and  pass  such 
an  examination  as  shall  be  required."  Under  the 
provisions  of  this  Act,  the  Directors  framed  a  scheme 
of  examination,  which  is  of  interest  on  two  grounds, 
as  being  the  first  scheme  of  examinations  for  entrance 
into  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  and  as  being  the  model 
for  the  later  examinations  for  entrance  to  Hailey- 
bury.  The  regulations  for  direct  appointments  were, 
that  the  nominees  to  the  service  should  be  between 
the  ages  of  eighteen  and  twenty-two,  that  they  should 
present  testimonials  of  good  moral  conduct  during 
the  two  years  prior  to  their  nomination,  and  that  they 
should  pass  a  qualifying  examination.  The  exami- 
nation was  conducted  by  four  examiners,  two  from 
Oxford  and  two  from  Cambridge,  and  was  in  classics, 
mathematics,  and  history.  The  amount  of  classics 
required  included  portions  of  some  of  the  chief 
authors  studied  in  the  English  schools  and  univer- 
sities; while  the  mathematics  included  geometry, 
algebra,  trigonometry,  and  mechanics;  and  the 
modern  history  was  to  be  taken  from  Russell's 
"  Modern  Europe."  It  was  particularly  stated  that 
superiority  in  one  department  should  compensate 
for  deficiency  in  another.  The  Directors  did  not 
demand  a  knowledge  of  Oriental  languages,  but 
announced  that  nominees    to    direct    appointments 


DIRECT  APPOINTMENTS  TO   INDIA  32 1 

would  "  promote  their  own  interests  by  commencing 
in  England  the  study  of  those  languages,  so  as  to 
pass  an  examination  there,  and  prosecuting  it  during 
the  voyage,  and  thereby  qualifying  themselves  to 
pass  in  India  the  test  required  of  all  Writers,  pre- 
viously to  their  being  reported  qualified  for  the  public 
service."  The  order  of  those  passing  the  examina- 
tion each  half-year  was  to  be  fixed  by  the  examiners, 
and  the  successful  candidates  were  to  be  ranked 
immediately  after  those  who  had  last  passed  out  of 
the  East  India  College. 

Mr.  William  Tayler,  whose  conduct  as  Commis- 
sioner of  Patna  during  the  Sepoy  Mutiny  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  controversy,  has  left  on  record 
an  account  of  the  manner  in  which  the  examinations 
for  direct  appointments  were  conducted  in  1829.  He 
had  been  educated  at  Charterhouse,  and  had  just 
kept  his  first  term  at  Christ  Church,  Oxford. 

"  The  ceremony  took  place  at  the  old  *  India  House,'  in 
Leadenhall  Street.  Two  examiners,  an  Oxonian  and  a 
Cantab,  were  deputed  for  the  occasion;  there  was  a  test- 
paper  distributed,  but  the  examinees  were  allowed  to  send 
in  a  list  of  extra  books  in  which  they  were  willing,  for  dis- 
tinction's sake,  to  be  examined.  Having  reached  a  some- 
what advanced  stage  in  Greek  and  Latin,  my  list  of  Classics 
was  alarming,  and  it  was  hinted  that,  to  some  extent,  I  was 
humbugging  the  examiners.  The  consequence  was,  that  I 
was  subjected  to  an  extra  ordeal,  to  prove  the  reality  of  my 
professed  acquirements.  This  was,  perhaps,  fortunate,  as 
the  result,  being  favorable,  helped  to  save  me  from  a 
dilemma.     In  the  test  list  was  a  paper  in  algebra.     Now  I 

Y 


322  DIRECT  APPOINTMENTS  TO  INDIA 

had  been  educated  at  the  Charterhouse,  and  had  never 
learned  either  mathematics  or  algebra,  and  some  thought 
that  on  this  account  I  might  be  spun.  There  was  no  help 
for  it,  however,  —  algebra  could  not  be  learned  in  a  day,  — 
so,  when  the  paper  came  before  me,  I  wrote,  with  many 
misgivings,  on  a  separate  piece,  '  I  have  never  learned 
algebra ' ;  then,  underneath,  I  drew  some  absurd  carica- 
tures, and  left  the  papers  all  together.  Shortly  afterwards 
we  retired  to  a  sideboard  in  the  room  to  eat  some  sand- 
wiches, and  while  there,  I  saw  one  of  the  examiners 
approach  my  table ;  it  was  a  nervous  moment ;  he  raised 
my  paper  and  read  the  fatal  words  ;  but  immediately  after- 
wards he  took  up  my  artistic  performances,  then  quietly 
beckoned  his  fellow-examiner,  and,  to  my  great  delight, 
I  saw  them  both  in  fits  of  laughter  !  To  this  auspicious 
interlude  of  the  comic,  combined  with  my  successful  exami- 
nation in  the  Classics,  I  attribute  the  happy  issue.  Not 
only  was  I  not  plucked,  but  passed  second  on  the  hst,  the 
first  place  being  taken  by  Mr.  (now  Sir  Thomas)  Pycroft, 
who,  like  a  '  good  boy,'  did  know  algebra,  and  who  was  up 
in  all  the  subjects."  ^ 

In  all  about  one  hundred  direct  appointments  to  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  were  given  between  1827  and 
1 83 1.  The  Act  permitting  direct  appointments  for 
a  period  of  three  years  was  interpreted  to  cover  nom- 
inations made  in  1829  of  persons  whose  examinations 
were  held  two  years  later.  During  this  period  alone 
was  the  Haileybury  training  for  Indian  civil  servants 
omitted ;  the  need  for  additional  qualified  men  did 
not  again  arise ;  and  the  expedient  of  direct  appoint- 
ments, which  had  been  introduced  upon  the  analogy  of 

^  Ta}'ler,  "Thirty-eight  Years  in  India,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  4-6. 


ADDISCOMBE  323 

direct  appointments  to  the  Company's  cavalry,  while 
the  other  branches  of  the  military  service  were  filled 
from  Addiscombe,  was  never  repeated.  The  number 
of  direct  appointments  filled  at  any  single  half-yearly 
examination  never  exceeded  fourteen,  and  averaged 
about  ten.  The  Haileybury  men  frankly  accepted 
as  their  compeers  the  men  who  went  to  India  with 
direct  appointments,  and  no  distinction  was  made 
between  the  two  classes  in  promotion  or  considera- 
tion. Among  the  distinguished  Indian  civil  servants 
who  came  from  the  ranks  of  the  direct  appointees 
may  be  noted,  in  addition  to  Mr.  Tayler,  Sir  Robert 
Montgomery,  who  succeeded  John  Lawrence  as  Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of  the  Punjab,  Sir  Henry  Byng  Har- 
ington.  Sir  John  Cracroft  Wilson,  and  Sir  Thomas 
Pycroft.  The  appointment  of  the  last  named  has 
an  especial  interest  in  that  his  nomination  was  ob- 
tained after  public  competition  among  the  undergrad- 
uates of  Oxford,  to  the  authorities  of  which  University 
it  had  been  given  for  this  purpose,  in  1827,  by  Mr. 
Charles  Watkin  Williams  Wynn,  at  that  time  Presi- 
dent of  the  Board  of  Control. 

Addiscombe 

Some  mention  should  here  be  made  of  the  only 
other  educational  institution  maintained  by  the  East 
India  Company  in  England  in  addition  to  the  East 
India  College  at  Haileybury,  namely,  the  Company's 
Military  Seminary  at  Addiscombe.  This  institution 
came  into  existence  at  about  the  same  time  as  the 


324  ADDISCOMBE 

East  India  College,  but  it  was  always  essentially  a 
school,  and  many  critics,  because  as  a  school  and  a 
military  school  discipline  was  easy  to  maintain  at 
Addiscombe,  desired  to  reduce  H  alley  bury  to  the 
same  grade  of  standing. 

The  East  India  Company's  army  became  a  large 
and  important  force  after  the  conquest  of  Bengal. 
It  consisted  mainly  of  native  soldiers  or  Sepoys, 
strengthened  by  the  presence  of  a  large  contingent 
of  English  troops  of  the  regular  army  and  of  three 
regiments  of  infantry  and  a  few  batteries  of  artillery 
recruited  in  England  for  the  Company's  service. 
The  officers  for  the  Company's  army,  both  native 
and  European,  were  originally  mainly  drawn  from 
the  English  regular  regiments  serving  in  India ;  but 
during  the  transition  period  from  the  time  of  Warren 
Hastings  to  the  time  of  Lord  Wellesley  this  source 
of  supply  gradually  ceased,  and  cadets  for  commis- 
sions were  appointed  by  the  Directors  of  the  East 
India  Company  in  England  and  by  officers  com- 
manding in  India.  This  want  of  system  brought 
about  a  want  of  cohesion  in  the  Company's  army 
and  a  want  of  loyalty  to  the  Company's  interests. 
Further,  it  did  not  provide  qualified  officers  for  the 
scientific  branches  of  the  service,  the  artillery  and 
engineers.  The  Court  of  Directors  tried  to  meet 
this  latter  difficulty  by  paying  for  the  education  of 
ten  cadets  a  year  at  the  Royal  Military  Academy  at 
Woolwich  from  1798 ;  but  this  number  proved  insuffi- 
cient, and,  in  1809,  Addiscombe  Place,  near  Croydon, 


ADDISCOMBE  325 

in  Surrey,  was  opened  as  a  Military  Seminary  for  the 
instruction  of  cadets  who  had  received  nominations 
to  the  Company's  artillery  and  engineers.  The  insti- 
tution was  found  to  be  useful,  and  it  was  greatly 
enlarged  after  18 16,  when  cadets  for  the  Company's 
infantry  were  likewise  required  to  receive  their  edu- 
cation there.  Nominations  to  Addiscombe  were  in 
the  gift  of  the  individual  Directors  of  the  East  India 
Company,  in  the  same  proportion  as  nominations  to 
Haileybury,  and  the  remarks  that  have  been  made 
with  regard  to  Haileybury  patronage  apply  equally 
to  Addiscombe  patronage.  The  Company's  cavalry 
was  filled  solely  by  direct  appointments  to  India,  and 
when  there  was  need  for  additional  infantry  officers  it 
was  supplied  by  the  granting  of  direct  appointments 
to  supplement  the  graduates  from  Addiscombe.  The 
two  scientific  branches  of  the  Company's  army,  how- 
ever, the  artillery  and  the  engineers,  were  entirely 
officered  from  Addiscombe.  Nominations  to  Addis- 
combe were  not  so  eagerly  sought  as  nominations  to 
Haileybury,  and  there  was  a  saying  in  vogue  that  the 
Directors  of  the  East  India  Company  put  their  clever 
sons  into  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  their  stupid  sons 
into  the  Company's  cavalry,  and  sent  their  poor  rela- 
tions to  Addiscombe. 

The  Military  Seminary  at  Addiscombe  was  essen- 
tially a  school.  Cadets  were  admitted  throughout  its 
history  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  eighteen ; 
the  instruction  given  was  school  instruction,  with  a 
little  Hindustani  and  a  good  deal  of  fortification,  gun- 


326  ADDISCOMBE 

nery,  and  military  drawing  added ;  the  discipline  was 
military  discipline,  the  cadets  wearing  uniforms  at  all 
times,  and  the  seniors  doing  their  share  in  training 
the  freshmen,  who  were  bullied  and  ordered  about 
under  the  name  of  "greens"  or  "probos,"  and  the 
supervision  by  the  Lieutenant-Governor,  who  was 
always  a  mihtary  officer  of  distinction,  and  his  staff 
and  orderly  officers,  was  much  more  strict  than  that 
exercised  at  Haileybury.  Twice  a  year  cadets  were 
passed  out  of  Addiscombe  after  two  years'  residence, 
when  those  at  the  head  of  the  class  received  commis- 
sions in  the  Company's  engineers,  the  next  in  order 
to  the  Company's  artillery,  and  the  remainder  to  the 
Company's  infantry.  The  chief  advantages  of  Addis- 
combe lay  in  the  way  in  which  it  revised  the  Directors' 
power  of  nomination,  by  dropping  or  expeUing  unfit 
persons,  and  the  opportunity  it  gave  for  the  future 
officers  in  the  Company's  army  to  form  social  rela- 
tions with  each  other,  through  a  common  training 
together,  which  produced  a  most  excellent  esprit  de 
corps.  Addiscombe  outlived  Haileybury,  for  though 
the  Directors  lost  their  privilege  of  nominating  to  the 
Civil  Service  in  1853,  they  retained  the  power  of 
nominating  to  commissions  in  the  Company's  army, 
Addiscombe  even  outlived  the  Company  itself,  and 
continued  to  exist  as  a  training  school  for  the  Indian 
army  until  the  final  amalgamation  of  the  Queen's 
and  the  Indian  army  in  1861. 

An  interesting  volume  entitled,  "Addiscombe:  its 
Heroes  and  Men  of  Note,"  by  Colonel  H.  M.  Vibart, 


ADDISCOMBE  327 

was  published  in  1894  as  a  companion  volume  to 
the  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College."  Being 
the  work  of  a  single  author,  it  is  much  better  put 
together  than  the  book  on  Haileybury,  and  it  con- 
tains a  very  readable  history  of  the  Addiscombe 
Seminary,  abounding  in  anecdote  and  embodying 
much  valuable  information.  The  graduates  of  Ad- 
discombe formed  a  splendid  body  of  officials ;  many 
of  them,  notably  Sir  Henry  Lawrence,  Sir  Henry 
Durand,  and  Sir  James  Browne,  obtained  distinction 
in  civil  capacities  as  governors  of  provinces  and 
administrators ;  others,  like  Sir  Proby  Cautley  and 
Sir  Arthur  Cotton,  as  engineers  constructed  great 
public  works  for  the  people  of  India ;  others  again, 
also  from  the  engineers,  completed  the  great  trigo- 
nometrical survey  of  India  under  the  supervision  of 
Sir  Andrew  Waugh ;  while  some  of  them  attained 
eminence  in  other  fields  of  activity,  like  Sir  Alex- 
ander Cunningham,  the  archaeologist;  his  brother, 
Joseph  Cunningham,  the  historian  of  the  Sikhs ;  Sir 
George  Chesney,  the  novelist  and  man  of  letters ; 
and  Sir  John  Kaye,  the  historian  of  the  Sepoy 
Mutiny  and  the  most  voluminous  writer  on  the  his- 
tory of  the  English  in  India.  But,  after  all,  the 
most  famous  graduates  of  Addiscombe  distinguished 
themselves  as  soldiers  in  the  profession  for  which 
they  were  trained  there.  Colonel  Vibart  in  his  book 
gives  a  long  list  of  famous  Addiscombe  soldiers, 
including  most  of  the  military  heroes  of  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  but  the  most  famous  of  them  all  were  Field 


328  THE  ABOLITION  OF   HAILEYBURY 

Marshal  Lord  Napier  of  Magdala,  who  commanded 
the  expedition  to  Abyssinia,  in  1867,  and  Field  Mar- 
shal Lord  Roberts  of  Kandahar,  who  contributed  a 
brief  introduction,  full  of  appreciation  for  his  old 
school,  to  Colonel  Vibart's  book. 

The  Abolition  of  the  East  India  College  at  Haileybury 

By  the  Act  renewing  the  Company's  charter  in 
1853,  16  &  17  Vic,  c.  95,  the  right  of  the  Directors 
of  the  East  India  Company  to  nominate  to  Hailey- 
bury  and  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service  was  declared 
to  be  withdrawn,  as  regards  all  vacancies  which 
should  occur  on  or  after  April  30,  1854.  The  prac- 
tice of  revising  the  conditions  under  which  India 
was  governed  every  twenty  years,  since  1793,  had 
been  most  beneficial.  Committees  of  both  Houses 
of  Parliament,  before  the  Acts  of  renewal  in  18 13, 
1833,  and  1853,  thoroughly  investigated  the  methods 
of  Indian  government  by  examining  a  large  number 
of  witnesses,  both  favourable  and  unfavourable  to  the 
existing  system,  and  it  was  upon  the  basis  of  the 
reports  of  these  committees  that  changes  were  intro- 
duced into  the  Acts  renewing  the  dual  government 
of  India  by  the  East  India  Company  and  the  Board 
of  Control.  Each  of  these  renewing  Acts  introduced 
important  changes.  Under  the  Act  of  181 3,  the 
East  India  Company  lost  its  monopoly  of  the  Indian 
trade;  under  the  Act  of  1833,  it  lost  its  monopoly 
of  the  Chinese  trade;  and  by  the  Act  of  1853,  the 
Directors  of  the  East  India  Company  lost  their  privi- 


THE  ABOLITION  OF  HAILEYBURY  329 

lege  of  nominating  to  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  This 
was  the  chief  point  of  discussion  in  the  India  debates 
of  1853.  Sir  Charles  Wood,  afterward  Lord  Hali- 
fax, who  was  President  of  the  Board  of  Control,  was 
particularly  resolved  on  this  change,  but  the  states- 
man who  was  mainly  responsible  for  the  triumphant 
majority  in  the  House  of  Commons  for  Wood's  prop- 
osition was  Macaulay.  The  famous  historian  had 
twenty  years  before  tried  to  overthrow  the  patronage 
system ;  ^  he  was  a  fanatical  believer  in  the  system  of 
competitive  examination  ;  and  his  convictions  made 
him  eloquent  and  caused  the  triumph  of  his  argu- 
ment.2  But  the  Act  of  1853  did  not  abolish  Hailey- 
bury ;  indeed,  it  clearly  implied,  in  certain  clauses, 
the  continuance  of  H  alley  bury,  and  elsewhere  only 
enacted  that  men  might  be  admitted  to  the  Indian 
Civil  Service  without  fulfilling  the  obligation  imposed 
in  181 3  of  passing  through  the  East  India  College. 
The  whole  matter  of  establishing  competitive  exam- 
inations in  the  place  of  the  Directors*  patronage  was 
referred  to  the  Royal  Commission,  whose  Report  is 
reprinted  in  full  in  this  volume.^ 

The  last  paragraphs  of  this  Report  dealt  with  the 
question  of  the  retention  of  Haileybury,  and  upon  the 
grounds  of  the  more  mature  age  of  successful  candi- 
dates for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  under  the  system 

1  Supra,  p.  245. 

'  Trevelyan :  "Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Macaulay,"  New  York,  1877, 
Vol.  IL,  pp.  285-293.  This  speech  is  not  printed  in  the  collected  edi- 
tion of  Macaulay's  works  for  reasons  given  in  his  Life. 

'  Supra,  pp.  77-98. 


330  THE  ABOLITION   OF   HAILEYBURY 

recommended  of  open  competition,  and  of  the  neces- 
sary changes  in  discipline  and  in  the  course  of  studies 
required  for  them,  the  Commission  concluded  by  leav- 
ing it  to  the  Board  of  Control  "  to  consider  whether 
any  plan  can  be  devised  by  which  such  a  training 
can  be  made  compatible  with  residence  at  Hailey- 
bury,"  Sir  Charles  Wood  evidently  thought,  and 
without  much  consideration,  that  the  competitive 
system  and  Haileybury  were  incompatible,  for  on 
November  30,  1854,  in  the  very  month  in  which  the 
Report  of  the  Commission  was  presented,  he  in- 
formed the  Court  of  Directors  that  he  did  not  think 
the  continued  maintenance  of  Haileybury  desirable, 
and  that  a  bill  would  be  introduced  for  its  abolition. 
Three  months  later  Sir  Charles  Wood  left  office,  but 
his  successor  at  the  Board  of  Control,  Mr.  Vernon 
Smith,  afterward  Lord  Lyveden,  indorsed  his  opin- 
ion and  by  an  Act  passed  in  July,  1855,  18  &  19 
Vic,  c.  53,  entitled  "An  Act  to  relieve  the  East 
India  Company  from  the  obligation  to  maintain  the 
College  at  Haileybury,"  it  was  enacted  that  on  and 
after  January  31,  1858,  the  College  should  be  closed 
and  that  no  person  should  be  admitted  to  the  Col- 
lege after  January,  1856.  In  July,  1855,  the  first  open 
competitive  examination  for  entrance  into  the  Indian 
Civil  Service  was  held,  and  for  the  next  two  years 
and  a  half  the  Civil  Service  was  recruited  in  almost 
equal  proportions  by  the  last  of  the  Haileyburians 
and  the  first  of  the  Competition  Wallahs.  The  last 
class,  or,  to   use  the  college  name,  the  last  "term," 


THE  NEW  HAILEYBURY  331 

was  graduated  from  Haileybury  in  December,  1857; 
the  ceremonies  of  "  Di's  Day  "  were  held  for  the  last 
time ;  and  the  East  India  College  as  a  training  place 
for  the  Indian  Civil  Service  ceased  to  exist.  Its 
founders,  the  Directors  and  stockholders  of  the  East 
India  Company,  did  not  long  survive  the  College  ; 
the  events  of  the  Sepoy  Mutiny  of  1857  resulted  in  a 
wild  outburst  of  indignation  against  the  dual  system 
of  governing  India;  the  methods  devised  in  1853  for 
perpetuating  the  system  were  abrogated ;  and  in  Jan- 
uary, 1859,  the  East  India  Company  expired  and  the 
government  of  India  was  taken  over  by  the  Crown. 

The  New  Haileybury 

The  English  government,  which  came  into  the  pos- 
session of  the  estate  and  buildings  of  Haileybury  as 
part  of  the  assets  of  the  East  India  Company,  tried 
for  a  time  to  use  them  for  military  purposes.  But 
when  they  were  found  to  be  badly  adapted  for  bar- 
racks they  were  put  up  for  sale  by  auction.  In  1861, 
they  passed  under  the  control  of  a  corporation  of 
gentlemen  and  clergymen  of  the  neighbourhood,  and 
a  school  upon  the  lines  of  the  great  English  public 
schools  was  opened  in  the  buildings  of  Haileybury  in 
September,  1862.  The  new  Haileybury  which  thus 
came  into  existence  in  the  buildings  of  old  Hailey- 
bury had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  India,  any 
more  than  Eton  or  Rugby  or  Marlborough ;  and  it  is 
necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Haileyburians  of 
the  last  forty  years  are  to  be  carefully  distinguished 


332  THE  NEW   HAILEYBURY 

from  the  graduates  of  the  East  India  College.  The 
Quadrangle  remains  practically  unaltered,  except  for 
the  construction  of  a  larger  chapel  on  the  site  of  the 
old  College  Library  and  the  turning  of  three  of  the 
former  blocks  of  students'  rooms  into  six  large  boys' 
dormitories.  Other  buildings,  however,  have  been 
added  outside  of  the  Quadrangle  and  the  school  now 
accommodates  over  five  hundred  boys.  The  tradi- 
tions of  the  former  residents  in  the  buildings  of 
Haileybury  are  carefully  cherished  in  the  new  Hailey- 
bury;  particularly  is  the  name  of  John  Lawrence 
revered,  and  an  inscription  has  been  put  up  in  his  old 
room  to  commemorate  his  use  of  it ;  a  generous  gift 
of  the  books,  not  in  Oriental  languages,  from  the  old 
College  Library,  partly  fills  the  shelves  of  its  suc- 
cessor; and  the  names  of  the  nine  dormitories  or 
"  houses  "  as  they  are  called,  of  the  six  in  the  Quad- 
rangle, and  of  the  three  that  have  been  added,  are 
those  of  famous  graduates  and  Principals  of  the  old 
Haileybury.  In  this  way  the  names  of  Lawrence, 
Trevelyan,  Thomason,  Colvin,  Bartle  Frere,  Edmon- 
stone,  Batten,  Le  Bas,  and  Melvill  are  kept  alive  at 
new  Haileybury.  The  name  of  the  school  and  its 
occupation  of  the  old  buildings  have  caused  it  to  be 
much  favoured  by  Anglo-Indian  families,  and  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  Battens  and  Melvills  and  Lushing- 
tons  and  Moneys  and  Ravenshaws  in  the  list  of 
names   of  boys  educated   at  the   new    Haileybury.^ 

^  A  brief  history  of  new  Haileybury  can  be  found  in  the  Haileybury 
Register,  edited  by  the  Rev.  L.  S.  Milford,  2d.  ed.,  Hertford,  1891. 


HAILEYBURY  AND  THE  CIVIL  SERVICE         333 

There  is  no  advantage  in  dwelling  at  greater  length 
here  upon  the  new  Haileybury;  it  is  enough  to 
note  that  it  now  ranks  among  the  foremost  of  the 
great  English  public  schools ;  and  it  may  be  of  inter- 
est to  students  of  modern  literature  to  state  that  Mr. 
Cormell  Price,  the  sagacious  "  Head "  of  Mr.  Kip- 
ling's schoolboy  stories,  "  Stalky  and  Co.,"  was 
house  master  of  Colvin  House  at  the  new  Haileybury 
from  1863  to  1874,  before  he  took  charge  of  the 
preparatory  school  for  the  army,  which  is  known  as 
The  United  Services  College  at  Westward  Ho ! 

The  Effect  of  Haileybury  on  the  Indian  Civil  Service 

The  unique  character  of  Haileybury  lies  in  its  being 
the  only  special  school  that  has  ever  existed  in  Eng- 
land for  the  training  of  Asiatic  administrators.  It 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  Indian  civilians  trained 
there  were  essentially  administrators,  rising  to  be 
judges  of  the  High  Courts,  but  never  Chief  Justices, 
and  to  be  Collectors  of  Districts,  Commissioners  of 
Divisions,  and  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Provinces, 
but  never,  except  during  the  brief  viceroy alty  of  John 
Lawrence,  Governors-General  or  Viceroys.  In  other 
words,  Haileybury  men,  for  about  seventy  years,  did 
most  of  the  work  of  governing  India,  but  did  not 
direct  Indian  policy.  In  this  their  position  was  simi- 
lar to  that  of  their  patrons,  the  Directors  of  the  India 
Company,  who  had  to  find  ways  and  means  of  carry- 
ing out  general  lines  of  policy  dictated  to  them  by  the 


334  HAILEYBURY  AND   THE  CIVIL  SERVICE 

English  government  through   the   President   of   the 
Board  of  Control. 

The  attitude  of  the  Haileybury  Indian  Civil  Ser- 
vants towards  their  work  was  not  entirely  the  result 
of  their  Haileybury  training.  Members  of  the  great 
Anglo-Indian  families  looked  to  service  in  India  as 
their  natural  and  inevitable  career.  Many  of  them 
had  been  born  in  India  and  had  always  looked  forward 
to  returning  to  the  land  of  their  birth,  with  pleasur- 
able recollections  of  childish  days ;  others  had  rela- 
tives in  India  ready  and  willing  to  initiate  them  into 
the  conditions  of  Indian  life ;  a  knowledge  of  the 
natives  was  inborn  in  them  from  one,  two,  or  three 
generations  of  Indian  experience,  and  they  were  able 
to  take  to  their  duties  without  the  inversion  of  pre- 
conceived ideas,  which  is  unavoidable  for  most  Euro- 
peans brought  into  sudden  contact  with  Asiatic  ideas 
and  customs.  India  to  them  was  home,  and  the  work 
of  ruling  the  natives  of  India  for  their  own  good  and 
slowly  introducing  them  to  the  methods  of  European 
civilization,  a  noble  life  work.  They  started,  there- 
fore, with  a  better  appreciation  of  what  lay  before 
them  than  either  their  predecessors,  to  whom  India 
was  the  "land  of  the  pagoda  tree,"  or  their  successors, 
who  are  often  utterly  ignorant  of  things  Indian  until 
they  pass  into  the  Indian  Civil  Service.  During  the 
Haileybury  period,  further,  India  was  more  out  of 
touch  with  England  than  is  the  case  in  these  days  of 
electric  cables  and  the  Suez  Canal,  and  the  Anglo- 
Indian  community  was  an  isolated  oligarchy  of  admin- 


HAILEYBURY  AND  THE  CIVIL  SERVICE  335 

istrators  and  army  officers.  It  was  the  patronage 
system  which  produced  this  oligarchy,  and  the  chief 
value  of  Haileybury  lay  in  its  binding  the  civilian 
members  of  this  oligarchy  together  by  a  training  in 
common,  and  inspiring  those  admitted  within  the 
circle,  by  the  nomination  of  the  Directors,  with  the 
same  attitude  towards  their  future  work  and  the  same 
pride  in  the  traditions  of  the  service. 

The  nature  of  the  intellectual  training  given  at 
Haileybury  can  best  be  seen  in  the  pages  referred  to 
from  the  writings  of  distinguished  graduates  of  the 
College.  The  amount  of  the  elements  of  the  Oriental 
languages  learnt  formed  only  a  slight  basis  for  subse- 
quent study  in  India;  the  teaching  in  history,  law,  and 
political  economy  was  more  stimulating  than  thorough ; 
and  the  additional  knowledge  acquired  of  classics  and 
mathematics  was  not  very  extensive.  It  was  the 
social  side  of  College  life  that  was  of  permanent 
value  to  the  Haileybury  civilians  in  their  future  work. 
They  got  to  know  not  only  the  men  of  their  own 
"term  "  but  the  men  of  the  three  previous  and  the  three 
succeeding  "  terms  "  in  the  thorough  way  that  is  only 
possible  among  young  men  at  college.  They  learned 
the  strength  and  weakness  of  each  other,  a  knowl- 
edge of  immense  importance  at  critical  times,  and 
each  man's  peculiar  fitness  and  unfitness  were  so 
thoroughly  recognized  throughout  the  service  as  to 
regulate,  to  some  extent,  the  nature  of  his  employ- 
ment. More  than  this,  there  grew  up  at  Haileybury 
that  genuine  esprit  de  corps  which  made  the  Indian 


336  HAILEYBURY  AND  THE  CIVIL  SERVICE 

CivD  Service  more  than  a  band  of  officials  and  almost 
a  band  of  brothers.  The  traditions  of  the  service 
were  handed  on  from  college  generation  to  college 
generation  and  were  common  to  all  the  Civil  Servants 
from  the  Himalayas  to  Cape  Comorin.  The  Anglo- 
Indian  hospitality  which  maintained  the  governing 
caste  in  close  bonds  of  brotherhood  had  its  origin  in 
the  common  associations  of  Haileybury  and  Addis- 
combe.  But  esprit  de  corps  is  apt  to  degenerate  into 
cliquishness,  and  the  supercilious  arrogance  of  some 
of  the  old  Haileybury  civilians,  and  the  air  of  super- 
iority, which  brought  down  on  them  the  mocking  epi- 
thet of  "the  heaven-born,"  originated  likewise  in 
Haileybury  exclusiveness.  Opposition  to  reform  was 
a  natural  outcome  of  pride  in  the  traditions  of  the 
service,  and  even  sympathy  with  native  ideas  and 
customs  had  its  bad  side  in  its  condonation  of  native 
vices.  Further,  the  training  together  of  the  whole 
body  of  administrators  made  their  force  almost  too 
strong  at  certain  critical  periods  of  Indian  history,  as, 
for  instance,  in  the  case  of  the  recall  of  Lord  Ellen- 
borough  in  1 844,  which  was  largely  due  to  the  oppo- 
sition excited  among  the  civilians  by  his  favour  to  the 
army. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  during  the  latter  part 
of  the  Company's  government  in  India  the  growth 
of  its  territory  caused  the  employment  of  large  num- 
bers of  officers  of  the  Indian  army  in  civil  capacities. 
Lord  Dalhousie's  great  annexations  were  treated  as 
non-regulation  provinces  and  the  first  rulers  of  the 


HAILEYBURIANS  IN  THE  MUTINY  337 

Punjab,  the  Central  Provinces,  and  Lower  Burma 
were  mostly  taken  from  the  commissioned  ranks  of 
the  Company's  army.  If  John  Lawrence  is  regarded 
as  the  most  famous  of  the  Haileybury  civilians,  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  his  brother,  Henry  Law- 
rence, was  once  an  Addiscombe  cadet.  The  test  of 
both  classes  of  administrators,  the  men  from  Hailey- 
bury and  the  men  from  Addiscombe,  came  in  North- 
em  India  in  1857  with  the  Sepoy  Mutiny.  Both 
groups  nobly  stood  the  test.  If  it  was  the  Punjab, 
mainly  manned  with  army  officers,  that,  under  the 
guidance  of  John  Lawrence,  a  Haileybury  civilian, 
saved  the  English  power  and  stemmed  the  progress 
of  the  revolt,  it  was  the  Northwestern  Provinces 
which  met  the  brunt  of  the  outbreak.  There  were 
there  and  in  Oudh,  when  the  Mutiny  commenced,  153 
civilians,  all  of  whom  were  Haileybury  men,  except 
the  few  direct  appointees  who  had  joined  between 
1827  and  1 83 1.  Of  these  twenty-nine  were  mur- 
dered or  killed  in  action,  at  least  three  died  of  chol- 
era as  the  result  of  exposure  on  service,^  while  there 
is  no  record  of  the  number  wounded,  since  the  wounds 
of  civiUans  received  no  official  notice  in  the  Gazettes. 
The  proud  record  of  the  gallantry  and  efficiency  of 
the  Haileybury  civilians  during  the  Mutiny  can  be 
seen  in  the  pages  of  Kaye  and  Malleson's  "  History," 
and  they  are  succinctly  put  together  in  the  alphabeti- 
cal order  of  the  names  of  the  most  distinguished  of 

*  R.  H.  W.  Danlop,  "  Service  and  Adventure  with  the  Khakee 
Ressalah,"  pp.  150,  151 
z 


338       HAILEYBURY  VERSUS  OPEN  COMPETITION 

them  in  the  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  Col- 
lege." ^  But  even  more  striking  than  the  individual 
gallantry  of  civilians  who  held  their  Districts  together 
during  the  flame  of  revolt,  and  who  served  as  soldiers 
and  as  police  officers  in  the  course  of  its  suppression, 
was  the  solidarity  of  the  Haileyburians  in  this  time 
of  crisis.  Each  man  knew  exactly  how  far  he  could 
depend  upon  his  neighbour,  and  the  intimate  knowl- 
edge of  each  other  gained  at^Haileybury,  and  the 
esprit  de  corps  there  fostered,  stood  the  civilians  in 
good  stead,  when  the  whole  structure  of  the  Com- 
pany's government  was  threatened  by  the  mutiny  of 
the  Company's  native  troops.  It  may  fairly  be  said 
that  the  patronage  of  the  East  India  Directors,  modi- 
fied by  Haileybury  training,  gloriously  justified  itself 
in  1857. 

Haileyburians  versus  Competition  Wallahs 

Good  men  have  been  obtained  for  the  Indian  Civil 
Service  under  all  systems.  And  the  question  of  the 
superiority  or  the  inferiority  of  the  general  body  of 
Indian  civilians  obtained  under  the  Haileybury  sys- 
tem and  the  open  competition  system  cannot  be 
mathematically  demonstrated.  Yet  undoubtedly  a 
difference  exists  between  the  two  classes.  How  far 
that  difference  may  be  due  to  the  cessation  of  the 
isolation  of  the  Indian  career  and  the  diminution  of 
the  number  of  representatives  of  the  great  Anglo- 

1  Pp.  585-632. 


HAILEYBURY  VERSUS  OPEN  COMPETITION       339 

Indian  families,  and  how  far  to  the  difference  of 
selection  and  training,  cannot  be  stated  positively. 
The  traditions  of  the  Haileyburians  have  been 
handed  on,  after  a  fashion,  to  the  Competition  Wal- 
lahs; the  old  social  intimacy,  the  result  of  a  com- 
mon training,  and  the  old  sympathy  with  the  natives, 
the  result  of  hereditary  associations,  may  have  given 
way  to  more  liberal  ideas  and  less  social  arrogance ; 
more  intellectual  civilians  may  have  been  brought 
into  the  service  than  would  have  come  in  had  Hailey- 
bury  been  retained ;  and  the  loss  of  old  Haileybury 
intimacy  may  be  well  compensated  by  the  abolition 
of  patronage.  It  is  impossible  to  make  a  comparison 
between  the  Haileyburians  and  the  Competition  Wal- 
lahs which  shall  not  be  arbitrary,  and  it  is,  therefore, 
better  to  take  the  recorded  judgment  of  those  who 
have  seen  the  men  produced  by  both  systems  at 
work,  as  to  the  results  of  the  two  systems  of  selec- 
tion and  training. 

Mr.  John  Martineau,  basing  his  remarks  upon  the 
papers  and  the  opinions  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  writes  in 
his  life  of  that  statesman  :  — 

"The  sense  of  comradeship  in  a  common  service  and 
the  knowledge  of  each  other's  character,  which  the  Hailey- 
bury life  fostered,  was  of  great  value  afterwards  in  India. 
It  enabled  each  to  have  a  better  knowledge  of  the  special 
qualities  of  those  with  whom  they  had  to  work,  and  to 
reckon  beforehand  on  whom,  in  time  of  stress,  they  would 
be  able  to  rely.  It  may  well  be  doubted  whether  the 
Indian  Civil  Service  did  not  suifer  a  great  loss  by  the  aboli- 
tion  of  the   Haileybury  training,  for   which  a  course  at  a 


340       HAILEYBURY   VERSUS   OPEN   COMPETITION 

university,   with   its   bewildering  choice  of  studies  and  its 
manifold  distractions,  is  but  an  indifferent  substitute."  ^ 

Sir  Richard  Temple,  dealing  with  the  same  subject 
writes :  — 

"  The  friendships  and  associations  formed  at  College  con- 
stituted one  of  the  several  bonds  of  comradeship  among  all 
the  Civil  Servants  during  their  administrative  careers,  and 
helped  to  maintain  an  elevated  standard  of  thought  and 
feeling  in  the  service  as  a  corps  (Telite.  Every  Civil  Ser- 
vant on  first  landing  in  India  imagined  himself  to  be  a 
member  of  the  most  highly  organized  body  of  functionaries 
that  the  world  had  ever  seen,  .  .  .  Many  circumstances 
conduced  to  send  us  forth  from  our  homes,  on  a  strange 
and  distant  service,  in  that  frame  of  mind  which  England 
should  desire  for  those  who  are  to  represent  her  before  the 
nations  of  the  East."  ^ 

Sir  George  Campbell  writes  :  — 

"The  young  men,  caught  young  and  taught  to  believe 
themselves  especially  fortunate,  took  a  pride  in  the  service ; 
they  had  a  wonderfully  effective  training  in  India,  and  almost 
all  became  zealous.  I  think  they  took  more  to  the  natives  than 
more  mature  men,  and  they  more  readily  accepted  the  view 
that  they  were  given  body  and  soul  to  the  Government,  — 
must  look  to  no  other  emoluments  whatever,  and  scrupulously 
abstain  from  all  other  enterprises.  I  say  all  this,  not  deny- 
ing that  the  present  mode  of  selection  is  better,  but  as 
showing  that  there  was  something  to  be  said  on  the  other 
side  too,  and  to  explain  why,  in  my  opinion,  the  difference 
in  efficiency  between  the  old  and  the  new  service  is  not  so 

1  Martineau,  "  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,"  Vol.  I., 

p.  9. 

*  Temple,  "  Men  and  Events  of  my  Time  in  India,"  p.  19. 


HAILEYBURY  VERSUS  OPEN  COMPETITION       34 1 

very  wide  as  might  be  supposed,  considering  the  difference 
in  the  manner  of  selection.  ...  I  confess  I  am  very  much 
inclined  to  regret  the  abolition  of  Haileybury.  Some  years 
later  I  had  a  plan  for  a  special  Indian  college  at  one  of  the 
universities,  and  had  a  good  deal  of  talk  with  Whewell 
about  it.  The  main  difficulty  seemed  to  be  that  no  govern- 
ment would  dare  to  plant  such  an  institution  at  one  univer- 
sity to  the  exclusion  of  the  other.  I  suspect  that,  at  the 
present  day,  that  would  be  very  much  the  difficulty  in  find- 
ing any  substitute  for  Haileybury."  ^ 

These  opinions,  expressed  by  three  of  the  most 
eminent  of  Haileybury  civilians,  who,  as  Governors 
and  Lieutenant-Governors  of  Provinces,  had  ample 
opportunity  to  test  the  men  produced  by  the  two 
systems,  speak  for  themselves,  and  it  is  not  necessary 
to  comment  further  on  the  special  advantages  which 
they  attributed  to  the  Haileybury  training.  It  may 
be  worth  while,  however,  to  point  out  the  generous 
manner  in  which  the  Haileybury  men  welcomed  their 
successors,  and  endeavoured  to  instil  into  them  the 
Haileybury  ideas.  Perhaps  this  is  best  shown  by 
a  quotation  from  the  speech  delivered  at  the  Hai- 
leybury dinner  in  Calcutta  on  January  23,  1864,  by 
Mr.  W.  S.  Seton-Karr.  Speaking  on  behalf  of  the 
Haileybury  men,  he  said :  — 

"  Every  year  must  necessarily  diminish  the  number  of 
our  race.  For  some  years  past  all  the  junior  posts  in  the 
service  have  been  filled,  and  filled  efficiently,  by  a  new 
order  of  men,  who  owe  their  appointments  to  tried  com- 

1  Campbell,  "  Memoirs  of  my  Indian  Career,"  pp.  8,  10. 


342       HAILEYBURY   VERSUS   OPEN   COMPETITION 

petitive  merit,  and  not  to  the  accidents  of  private  and 
political  connection  or  of  birth.  I  feel  sure  that  we  shall 
not  content  ourselves  with  a  tardy  acknowledgment  of  the 
claims  of  the  new  men,  still  less  view  the  presence  of '  new 
blood '  with  dislike  or  jealousy ;  but  that  we  shall  hold  out 
to  every  fresh  member  the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  and 
wish  him  success  in  his  work.  We  shall  rejoice  heartily  if 
the  promises  of  the  new  system  shall  be  even  more  than  ful- 
filled. We  shall  welcome  the  new  men  if  they  come,  rich 
with  honours  gained  on  the  banks  of  the  Cam  and  the  Isis, 
more  highly  gifted,  more  completely  educated,  and  more 
scientifically  trained.  We  shall  be  content  to  be  far  sur- 
passed in  talent,  if  we  are  only  equalled  in  integrity  and 
honour.  I  trust  they  will  not  disdain  to  adopt  from  us  some 
of  those  traditions  which  it  is  now  the  fashion,  in  some  quar- 
ters, to  depreciate  and  disparage;  and  that,  from  the  first, 
they  will  act  steadily  on  the  sure  and  simple  maxim,  that  we 
are  bound  to  govern  India  in  trust  for  the  natives,  and  for 
India  itself."  ^ 

In  the  same  year  in  which  Mr.  Seton-Karr  deliv- 
ered the  speech  from  which  this  passage  is  taken, 
Mr.  George  Otto  Trevelyan,  now  Sir  G.  O.  Trevel- 
yan,  published  a  series  of  letters  from  India,  origi- 
nally printed  in  Macmillan  s  Magazine,  under  the 
title  of  "The  Competition  Wallah."  No  one  could  be 
better  fitted  to  form  a  fair  opinion  on  the  respective 
advantages  of  the  two  systems  than  the  eldest  son 
of  Sir  Charles  Trevelyan,  one  of  the  most  distin- 
guished of  the  Haileybury  men,  and  the  nephew  of 
Macaulay,  the  chief  author  of  the  system  of  open 
competition.     The   letters   in   question  were  written 

1  "  Memorials  of  Old  Haileybury  College,"  p.  94. 


HAILEYBURY  VERSUS  OPEN  COMPETITION       343 

when  Trevelyan  was  fresh  from  a  brilliant  career 
at  Cambridge,  and  were  not,  as  they  purported  to 
be,  the  views  of  a  real  Competition  Wallah.  Some 
paragraphs  from  this  volume  may  serve  to  close  this 
account  of  the  old  East  India  College  at  Hailey- 
bury :  — 

"  In  old  days  a  Writer  came  out  in  company  with  a  score 
of  men  who  had  passed  the  last  two  years  of  their  English 
life  in  the  same  quadrangle  as  himself.  He  found  as  many 
more  already  comfortably  settled,  and  prepared  to  welcome 
and  assist  their  fellow-collegian ;  and,  in  his  turn,  he  looked 
forward  to  receiving  and  initiating  a  fresh  batch  at  the  end 
of  another  six  months.  Haileybury  formed  a  tie  which  the 
vicissitudes  of  official  life  could  never  break.  .  .  .  Wher- 
ever two  Haileybury  men  met  they  had  at  least  one  set  of 
associations  in  common.  .  .  .  Had  they  not  rowed  together 
on  the  Lea?  Had  they  not  larked  together  in  Hertford? 
Had  they  not  shared  that  abundant  harvest  of  medals  which 
rewarded  the  somewhat  moderate  exertions  of  the  reading- 
man  at  the  East  India  College  ?  This  strong  esprit  de  corps 
had  its  drawbacks.  The  interests  of  the  country  were  too 
often  postponed  to  the  interests  of  the  service.  But  the 
advantages  of  Haileybury  outweighed  the  defects.  Our 
situation  is  very  different.  Few  of  us  are  lucky  enough  to 
have  more  than  two  or  three  acquaintances  among  the  men 
of  our  own  years  :  and,  while  our  seniors  persist  in  looking 
on  us  as  a  special  class,  we  have  no  bond  of  union  among 
ourselves.  .  .  .  The  idea  entertained  by  the  natives  is  droll 
enough  :  they  say  that  another  caste  of  Englishmen  has 
come  out." 

"  We  must  not  close  our  eyes  to  the  undoubted  advantages 
of  competition.  Short  of  competition,  the  old  system  of 
appointment  by  individual  directors  is  far  the  best  that  ever 


344       HAILE\^URY  VERSUS  OPEN  COMPETITION 

was  devised.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  for  a  statesman,  with  his 
hands  full  of  work,  however  well  disposed,  to  make,  on  his 
own  judgment,  a  large  number  of  appointments.  He  must 
rely  on  the  recommendation  of  others.  He  might,  indeed, 
request  the  head-masters  of  the  great  public  schools  to  send 
in  the  names  of  those  of  their  best  scholars  who  fancied  an 
Indian  career  —  which,  after  all,  would  only  be  an  irregular 
competitive  system  under  another  name.  But  he  would  be 
far  more  likely  to  ask  members  of  parliament,  who  were 
undecided  which  way  to  vote  on  the  approaching  stand-and- 
fall  question,  to  assist  him  with  their  valuable  advice  in 
making  the  nominations.  .  .  .  Now,  the  system  of 
appointment  by  directors  worked  well,  because  it  was 
founded  on  the  principle  of  personal  responsibility.  Each 
member  of  the  board  wished  his  prot6g6  to  do  him  credit. 
He  chose  the  most  promising  of  his  sons  or  nephews :  and 
a  public-spirited  man  would  often  go  further  and  nominate 
the  most  likely  young  fellow  of  his  acquaintance.  The 
chief  disadvantage  lay  in  the  fact  that  the  lads,  brought  up 
in  Anglo-Indian  families,  and  among  Indian  associations, 
fro'm  an  early  age,  looked  upon  India  as  their  birth-right,  and 
failed  to  acquire  the  larger  views  and  wider  interests  of  a 
general  English  education." 

"  Is  there,  then,  any  plan  which  would  unite  the  advan- 
tages of  the  old  and  the  new  systems  ?  Why  not  appoint  men 
by  open  competition,  between  the  ages  of,  say,  seventeen  and 
nineteen,  and  afterward  send  the  successful  candidates  to 
an  East  India  College  at  or  near  London  ?  By  choosing 
your  civilians  at  an  earlier  age,  you  will  get  hold  of  a  class 
who  now  slip  through  your  hands.  A  man  of  first-rate 
powers,  who  has  once  tasted  the  sweets  of  university  success, 
will  never  be  persuaded  to  give  up  his  English  hopes.  .  .  . 
Such  a  college  as  I  propose  would  retain  all  that  is  good  in 
Haileybury,  without  its  capital  defect  —  an  excessive  esprit 


CONCLUSION  345 

de  corps,  a  way  of  thought  too  exclusively  Anglo-Indian. 
.  .  .  Such  an  institution  would  obviate  all  the  defects  in  the 
present  system,  that  are  so  strongly  felt  both  by  its  enemies 
and  its  well-wishers.  It  would  again  unite  the  members  of 
the  Civil  Service,  in  the  most  indissoluble  of  ties ;  and  would 
prove  an  admirable  corrective  of  a  pedantic,  unpractical 
turn  of  mind,  or  of  a  sedentary,  effeminate  habit  of  body. 
The  innate  evils  of  a  close  college  would  have  no  existence 
among  a  society  of  young  fellows,  picked  by  merit  from  the 
great  places  of  education,  and  planted  within  easy  reach  of 
Lincoln's  Inn  and  Westminster  Hall."^ 

It  only  remains  to  be  added  that  no  such  college 
as  Sir  George  Trevelyan  commends  was  ever  founded, 
and  that,  as  Mr.  Lowell  has  pointed  out,  candidates 
selected  by  open  competitive  examination  have  spent 
their  probationary  years  generally  at  Oxford  or  at 
Cambridge.  By  the  natural  workings  of  time  the 
Competition  Wallahs  have  succeeded  to  the  entire 
control  of  the  administration  of  India,  and  only  one 
Haileybury  civilian.  Sir  Henry  Thoby  Prinsep,  still 
remains  in  harness  in  the  Indian  Civil  Service,  as  a 
Judge  of  the  High  Court  at  Calcutta. 

Conclusion 

It  appears  clearly  from  this  history  of  the  patronage 
system  of  the  East  India  Company  as  to  appointments 
in  the  Indian  Civil  Service  and  of  the  East  India  Col- 
lege at  Haileybury,  that  patronage,  when  checked  by 
training  at  a  special  college,  entered  only  after  a  qual- 

^G.  O.  Trevelyan,  "The  Competition  Wallah,"  2d  ed.,  1866, 
pp.  6-15. 


346  CONCLUSION 

ifying  examination,  produces  results  not  inferior  to 
open  competitive  examination.  It  is  further  brought 
out  that  the  age  of  admission  to  such  a  college  should 
be  fixed  low  enough  to  allow  a  considerable  period 
of  residence  at  the  college  before  its  graduates  need 
proceed,  while  still  young  enough  to  become  acclima- 
tized, to  Asia.  It  is  proved  by  long  and  successful 
experience  that  the  course  of  studies  in  such  a  college 
is  best  based  upon  a  good  general  education,  with 
sufficient  elementary  training  in  Oriental  languages 
and  subjects  to  enable  early  qualification  for  active 
work  after  arrival  in  Asia.  While  most  clearly  of  all 
it  is  proved  that  the  chief  advantage  of  such  a  college 
as  Haileybury  lay  not  so  much  in  the  actual  instruc- 
tion afforded,  as  in  the  association  together  of  young 
men  intended  for  a  career  in  common,  in  which  they 
specially  needed  the  traditions  of  a  noble  service, 
while  labouring  side  by  side  for  the  promotion  of  the 
welfare  of  the  peoples  of  the  East. 


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